Western blotting of hippocampal lysates was also conducted to assess persistent changes in NLRP3 inflammasome levels, key neuroinflammatory proteins associated with long-term neurodegenerative disease.[59–61] 10 weeks after exposures, nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain, leucine-rich repeat and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) and caspase-1 (Casp1) were both significantly elevated in WS mice compared to control, while apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase-activation and recruitment domain (ASC) was unaltered (Fig. 5B). This evidence concerns the gene CASP1 and neurodegenerative disease.