Similarly, analysis of the reassortant Hf09 viruses carrying the NS gene derived from Sk02 showed a similar pattern (Figure 6e), compared to the Hf09 NSSk02 WT whose infection led to a dip of over 4 mBU, mutations on M2 resulted in a reduced degree of mBU dips, indicating that loss of M2 ion channel activity impairs the activation of NLRP3. Here, NLRP3 is linked to infection.