Inflammasome Signaling in the Aging Brain and Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases

Inflammasomes are intracellular protein complexes, members of the innate immune system, and their activation and regulation play an essential role in maintaining homeostatic conditions against exogenous and endogenous stimuli. Inflammasomes occur as cytosolic proteins and assemble into a complex during the recognition of pathogen-associated or danger-associated molecular patterns by pattern-recognition receptors in host cells. The formation of the inflammasome complex elicits signaling molecules of proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1β and interleukin 18 via activation of caspase-1 in the canonical inflammasome pathway whereas caspase-11 in the case of a mouse and caspase-4 and caspase-5 in the case of humans in the non-canonical inflammasome pathway, resulting in pyroptotic or inflammatory cell death which ultimately leads to neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative diseases. Inflammasome activation, particularly in microglial cells and macrophages, has been linked to aging as well as age-related neurodegenerative diseases. The accumulation of abnormal/ misfolded proteins acts as a ligand for inflammasome activation in neurodegenerative diseases. Although recent studies have revealed the inflammasomes’ functionality in both in vitro and in vivo models, many inflammasome signaling cascade activations during biological aging, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration are still ambiguous. In this review, we comprehensively unveil the cellular and molecular mechanisms of inflammasome activation during neuronal aging and age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, prion disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.