Interestingly, a recent report observed that the accumulation of Alu transcripts in retinal-pigmented epithelial cells induced NLRP3 activation through mitochondrial oxygen species generation, resulting in production of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-18, which contributed to the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) [43]. Here, IL18 is linked to age-related macular degeneration.