The seminar titled "Inflammasome Activity in Disease and Apoptosis" was held on February 19, 2009 at Seminar room of Research Institute for Microbial Diseases (BIKEN), Osaka University. The lecturer was Dr. Nesrin Ozoren, associate professor, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bogazici University (Istanbul, Turkey).

The Inflammasome is a multiprotein complex consisting of caspase 1, PYCARD, a NALP and sometimes caspase 5 or caspase 11. The inflammasome promotes the maturation of inflammatory cytokines interleukin 1-beta and interleukin 18, and has been shown to induce programmed cell death. In this seminar, Dr. Ozoren presented the relationship between initial pathogen recognition by Toll-like Receptor (TLR) or Nod-like Receptor (NLR) and Inflammasome activity related to immune diseases accompanied by apoptosis.

Dr. Ozoren also provided an interesting subject about Behcet's disease. Behcet's disease is a kind of immune disease which was reported by Hulusi Behcet, a Turkish medical doctor, for the first time in 1936. This disease was considered more prevalent in the areas along old silk trading routes in the Middle East and Central Asia. Thus, it is sometimes called as "Silk Road Disease". Though its symptoms have been known from ancient times, the etiology of Behcet's disease has not specified yet.

[References]

● Martinon F, Burns K, Tschopp J. The inflammasome: a molecular platform triggering activation of inflammatory caspases and processing of proIL-beta. Mol Cell 10 (2): 417-26., 2002.
● Ozoren N, Masumoto J, Franchi L, Erturk I, Jagirdar R, Zhu L, Inohara N, Bertin J, Coyle A, Grant EP, and Nunez G. Distinct roles of TLR2 and the adaptor ASC in IL-1beta/IL-18 secretion in response to Listeria monocytogenes. J Immunol., 2006.
● Kanneganti TD, Ozoren N, Body-Malapel M, Amer A, Park JH, Franchi L, Whitfield J, Barchet W, Colonna M, Akira S, and Nunez G. Bacterial RNA and small antiviral compounds activate caspase-1 through cryopyrin/Nalp3. Nature., 2006.