GZMA and streptococcal pneumonia: Granzyme A is also considered to participate in the host defense response in multiple ways, such as by generating superoxide and inactivating the oxidative defense enzymes that kill intracellular parasites [44], by unfavorably impairing host defenses during Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia [45], by performing as a proinflammatory protease that cleaves IL-1β intracellularly into bioactive IL-1β [46, 47], or by causing detachment of alveolar epithelial A549 cells accompanied by promotion of IL-8 release [48].