IL18 and metabolic disease: NLRP3 inflammasome formation promotes the proximity-induced autocatalytic activation of caspase-1 and mediates the cleavage/activation and secretion/release of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-18 implicated in several metabolic disorders (Schroder et al., 2010; Strowig et al., 2012; Wen et al., 2012).