IL‐1β levels are increased in the CSF of patients with Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) (Van Everbroeck et al, 2002), and IL‐1β and cleaved caspase‐1 levels were reported to be upregulated in the brains of scrapie‐infected mice (Schultz et al, 2004). Here, IL1B is linked to Creutzfeldt Jacob disease.