Activated macrophages undergo a metabolic switch to aerobic glycolysis accumulating Krebs cycle intermediates that alter transcription of immune response genes. Here we extend these observations by defining fumarate as an inhibitor of pyroptotic cell death. We found that dimethyl fumarate (DMF) delivered to cells or endogenous fumarate reacts with gasdermin D (GSDMD) at critical cysteine residues to form S-(2-succinyl)-cysteine. GSDMD succination prevents its interaction with caspases, limiting its processing, oligomerization, and capacity to induce cell death. In mice, the administration of DMF protects against LPS shock and alleviates familial Mediterranean fever and experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE) by targeting GSDMD. Collectively, these findings identify GSDMD as a target of fumarate and reveal a mechanism of action for fumarate-based therapeutics including DMF used to treat multiple sclerosis.

No abstract

The NLRP3 inflammasome has an important function in inflammation by promoting the processing of pro-IL-1β and pro-IL-18 to their mature bioactive forms, and by inducing cell death via pyroptosis. Here we show a critical function of the E3 ubiquitin ligase Pellino2 in facilitating activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Pellino2-deficient mice and myeloid cells have impaired activation of NLRP3 in response to toll-like receptor priming, NLRP3 stimuli and bacterial challenge. These functions of Pellino2 in the NLRP3 pathway are dependent on Pellino2 FHA and RING-like domains, with Pellino2 promoting the ubiquitination of NLRP3 during the priming phase of activation. We also identify a negative function of IRAK1 in the NLRP3 inflammasome, and describe a counter-regulatory relationship between IRAK1 and Pellino2. Our findings reveal a Pellino2-mediated regulatory signaling system that controls activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome.

Coronaviruses are a family of RNA viruses that cause acute and chronic diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tract in humans and other animals. SARS-CoV-2 is a recently emerged coronavirus that has led to a global pandemic causing a severe respiratory disease known as COVID-19 with significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. The development of antiviral therapeutics are urgently needed while vaccine programs roll out worldwide. Here we describe a diamidobenzimidazole compound, diABZI-4, that activates STING and is highly effective in limiting SARS-CoV-2 replication in cells and animals. diABZI-4 inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication in lung epithelial cells. Administration of diABZI-4 intranasally before or even after virus infection conferred complete protection from severe respiratory disease in K18-ACE2-transgenic mice infected with SARS-CoV-2. Intranasal delivery of diABZI-4 induced a rapid short-lived activation of STING, leading to transient proinflammatory cytokine production and lymphocyte activation in the lung associated with inhibition of viral replication. Our study supports the use of diABZI-4 as a host-directed therapy which mobilizes antiviral defenses for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.

The innate immune system is equipped with pattern-recognition receptors that recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns 1 . Pattern-recognition receptors include transmembrane Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and cytosolic Nod-like receptors 2 . Nod1 and Nod2 recognize structures in bacterial peptidoglycan 3 . Loss-of-function mutants of Nod2 are associated with Crohn's disease 4-6 , whereas gain-offunction mutants result in predisposition to the development of earlyonset sarcoidosis and Blau syndrome 7,8 . Nod2 responds to muramyl dipeptide (MDP), a derivative of peptidoglycan 9,10 . Nod2 consists of two amino-terminal caspase-recruitment domains (CARDs), a central self-oligomerization NACHT region and multiple carboxyterminal leucine-rich repeats 11 . Engagement of the leucine-rich repeats by MDP promotes a conformational change that exposes the NACHT domain, which allows self-oligomerization of Nod2 and the binding of its CARDs to the CARD-containing kinase RIP2 (refs. 12,13). RIP2 interacts with the kinase TAK1, which leads to activation of the transcription factor NF-κB and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and induction of the expression of proinflammatory cytokines [14][15][16][17][18] . Ubiquitination of RIP2 is critical for Nod2 signaling pathways 15,16 .The attachment of polyubiquitin chains to RIP2 serves to recruit TAK1 via the adaptors TAB2 and TAB3 (ref. 19), and that facilitates TAK1-induced phosphorylation and activation of IκB kinases (IKKs) that induce phosphorylation of inhibitory IκB proteins 20 . Phosphorylated IκB proteins undergo proteasome-mediated degradation 21 that allows NF-κB to translocate to the nucleus and induce proinflammatory gene expression 22 . Studies have investigated the enzymes responsible for catalyzing the ubiquitination of RIP2. The Ubc13-Uev1a dimer acts as the E2 conjugating enzyme in the Lys63 (K63)-linked polyubiquitination of RIP2 (refs. 15,16), but the identity of the E3 ubiquitin ligase(s) that directly ubiquitinate(s) RIP2 to mediate Nod2-induced activation of NF-κB remains unclear. TRAF6 has been proposed as the main E3 ligase for RIP2 (ref. 15), but the ubiquitination of RIP2 is intact in TRAF6-deficient cells 16 and knockdown of TRAF6 does not affect RIP2-mediated activation of NF-κB 9,14 . Three members of the 'IAP' family of E3 ubiquitin ligases (XIAP, cIAP1 and cIAP2) have been proposed to regulate RIP2 ubiquitination 23,24 . Although the conclusions of the last two studies differ about the functional importance of cIAP1 and cIAP2 in mediating Nod2-induced ubiquitination of RIP2, one demonstrated that XIAP promotes the ubiquitination of RIP2 and recruitment of the linear ubiquitin chain-assembly complex (LUBAC) to Nod2 (ref. 23). However, the XIAP-mediated polyubiquitination of RIP2 is not K63 linked, a type of linkage associated with RIP2-induced activation of NF-κB. The E3 ligase Itch can also directly ubiquitinate RIP2 to negatively regulate Nod2-induced activation of NF-κB 25 . Thus, it remains unclear which E3 ubiquitin ligase directly cataly...