There are two inflammasome activation pathways – canonical and non-canonical.
Canonical inflammasome activation is a caspase-1 dependent process.
Non-canonical inflammasome activation is dependent on caspase-4/5 in humans and caspase-11 in mice. The inflammatory caspases are capable of detecting intracellular LPS from gram-negative bacteria. Together with caspase-1, they cleave the pore forming protein gasdermin-D (GDMD). GSDMD makes the cell wall more permeable, and may trigger pyroptosis, a form of inflammatory programmed cell death.