The familial Mediterranean fever protein, pyrin, is cleaved by caspase-1 and activates NF-κB through its N-terminal fragment

Abstract

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autoinflammatory disease caused by mutations in MEFV, which encodes a 781–amino acid protein denoted pyrin. We have previously shown that pyrin regulates caspase-1 activation and IL-1β production through interaction of its N-terminal PYD motif with the ASC adapter protein, and also modulates IL-1β production by interaction of its C-terminal B30.2 domain with the catalytic domains of caspase-1. We now asked whether pyrin might itself be a caspase-1 substrate, and found that pyrin is cleaved by caspase-1 at Asp330, a site remote from the B30.2 domain. Pyrin variants harboring FMF-associated B30.2 mutations were cleaved more efficiently than wild-type pyrin. The N-terminal cleaved fragment interacted with the p65 subunit of NF-κB and with IκB-α through its 15-aa bZIP basic domain and adjacent sequences, respectively, and translocated to the nucleus. The interaction of the N-terminal fragment with p65 enhanced entrance of p65 into the nucleus. The interaction of N-terminal pyrin with IκB-α induced calpain-mediated degradation of IκB-α, thus potentiating NF-κB activation. Absolute and relative quantities of cleaved pyrin and IκB-α degradation products were substantially increased in leukocytes from FMF patients compared with healthy controls. Our data support a new pyrin/caspase-1 pathway for NF-κB activation.