Study describes role of Caspase-1 in infection of Chlamydia Trachomatis, use of FAM-YVAD-FMK cited

In the well-crafted study of inflammasome induction following cervical epithelial cell infection, Abdul-Sater et. al. (Inflammasome-Dependent Caspase-1 Activation in Cervical Epithelial Cells Stimulates Growth of the Intracellular Pathogen Chlamydia Trachomatis, J. Biol. Chem 284: 26789-26796, 2009) used ImmunoChemistry Technologies’ FLICA caspase-1 assay kit (catalog #98, FAM-YVAD-FMK) to quantify the percentage of cells containing active caspase-1 following C. Trachomatis infection of HeLa cells. The data show a significant level of caspase-1 activation within 24 hours post-infection evident in 50% of the cultured epithelial cells. The study goes further to illustrate the role of ROS production and K+ efflux in the activation of caspase-1. Specifically, infection by C. Trachomatis leads to a decrease in intracellular K+ levels that causes a rise in ROS production resulting in caspase-1 activation. Furthermore, the study illustrates how subsequent caspase-1 activation after C. Trachomatis infection enhances the infectivity of the pathogen.