The data here suggest that IL-18 may be a useful therapeutic target, by preventing adaptive cell airway infiltration whilst maintaining a potent IL-1β response to infection (Gabay et al., 2018); however, NLRP3 activation exercises a protective role in animal models of induced colitis (Allen et al., 2010), running contrary to the expectation that reduced NLRP3 expression might reduce inflammation in the bowel. Here, NLRP3 is linked to infection.