2.1.2 Inflammasomes
Inflammasomes are complexes formed by the polymerization of multiple
proteins that play an important regulatory role in the onset and
progression of lung injury. The NLRP3 inflammasome is one of the most
widely studied inflammatory vesicles, and mainly contains the
recognition protein NLP, the bridging protein Asc, and the effector
protein Caspase148. Previous studies have found that
activation of NLRP3 inflammatory vesicles is a critical step in the
pathogenesis of BPD49. Zhao et al. found that
caffeine-induced antagonism of adenosine 2A receptor (A2AR) reduced the
production of reactive oxygen species(ROS) , decreased the levels of
cleaved caspase 1 expression, and inhibited expression of the NLRP3
inflammasome expression in LPS-induced THP-1 macrophages43. Subsequently, Chen et al. used animal models to
demonstrate that caffeine inhibits the production of inflammatory
factors and protects against lung injury due to hyperoxia exposure by
reducing NF-κB pathway activation and by inhibiting NLRP3 the formation
of the inflammasome44.