NLRP3 and atherosclerosis: Caspase-1 activated by the NLRP3 inflammasome can cause pyroptosis that is a form of necrotic and inflammatory programmed cell death, which is involved in a variety of pathological processes [23].The abnormal activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome is associated with many diseases, such as gout [24], atherosclerosis [25], Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [26] and type II diabetes mellitus (T2D) [27].