A study has shown that neurons that are under cellular stress release the active form of MMP-3, which in turn triggers microglial activation and production of pro-inflammatory cytokines including Tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-1 (Kim et al., 2005), thereby contributing to the neuroinflammatory response in the HD brain (Bjorkqvist et al., 2008), and worsening of disease (Connolly et al., 2016). The gene discussed is IL1B; the disease is Huntington disease.