Furthermore, in the event of gram-negative bacterial infection of neutrophils, the granule-associated proteases cathepsin G (CatG) and ELANE (neutrophil elastase), which are specific to neutrophils, can also process GSDMD into active GSDMD-NTD (Figure 2B), thereby inducing pyroptosis in neutrophils and leading to the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) as a means of preventing further infection 89, 90. The gene discussed is ELANE; the disease is gram-negative bacterial infections.