We next investigated which specific inflammasome mediates this effect of stroke on CCA plaque exacerbation by applying specific pharmacological inhibitors of the NLRP3 (MCC950) or a novel AIM2 inflammasome inhibitor16 (4-sulfonic calixarene), which we found to dose-dependently displace DNA, which is the ligand of the AIM2 inflammasome (Extended Data Fig. 6a,b). The gene discussed is AIM2; the disease is Stroke.