Previous reports have identified that Plasmodium infection activates the inflammasome in human patients (Ataide et al, 2014; Hirako et al, 2015); however, studies in vitro needed an additional exogenous signal 1 for the production of IL‐1β that was added in the form of LPS, which is a bacterial product not present during malaria (Ataide et al, 2014; Kalantari et al, 2014; Hirako et al, 2015). Here, IL1B is linked to malaria.