Furthermore, analysis of the activity of caspase 3/7 in cell lysate and LDH in supernatant of stimulated BMM that were co-cultivated with D39Δcps for 4h or treated with 10 μM MG132 for 24 h as positive control (Fig 8A) as well as analysis of potential liver damage, 48 h post infection, by measuring ALAT activity in serum of mice transnasally infected with 5×106 CFU PN36/mouse (Fig 8B) revealed that deficiency in β5i/LMP7 did not exacerbate inflammation-induced apoptosis or cytotoxicity in liver or macrophages. Here, CASP3 is linked to infection.