The protective effects of NLRP3 inhibition were similarly observed in high glucose treated rat proximal renal tubular epithelial cells (NRK-52E cells), whereas with their observations in glomeruli of the diabetic kidney, Ke et al report that LV-TXNIP-shRNA transfection significantly reduced apoptosis in response to downregulated expression of NLRP3, ASC, cleaved caspase-1, GSDMD-NT, IL1β and IL18 (Ke et al., 2020). Here, NLRP3 is linked to diabetes mellitus.