Nicotine flux and pharmacokinetics-based considerations for early assessment of nicotine delivery systems.

In the past few years, technological advancements enabled the development of novel electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). Several empirical measures such as "nicotine flux" are being proposed to evaluate the abuse liability potential of these products. We explored the applicability of nicotine flux for clinical nicotine pharmacokinetics (PK) and 52-week quit success from cigarettes for a wide range of existing nicotine delivery systems. We found that the differences in nicotine flux for various nicotine delivery systems are not related to changes in PK, as nicotine flux does not capture key physiological properties such as nicotine absorption rate. Further, the 52-week quit success and abuse liability potential of nicotine nasal sprays (high nicotine flux product), and nicotine inhalers (nicotine flux similar to ENDS) are low, suggesting that nicotine flux is a poor metric for the assessment of nicotine delivery systems. PK indices are more dependable for characterizing nicotine delivery systems, and a nicotine plasma C max T max > 1 could improve 52-week quit success from cigarettes. However, a single metric may be inadequate to fully assess the abuse liability potential of nicotine delivery systems and needs to be further studied. A combination of in vitro and in silico approaches could potentially address the factors influencing the inhaled aerosol dosimetry and resulting PK of nicotine to provide early insights for ENDS assessments. Further research is required to understand nicotine dosimetry and PK for ad libitum product use, and abuse liability indicators of nicotine delivery systems. This commentary is intended to (1) highlight the need to think beyond a single empirical metric such as nicotine flux, (2) suggest potential PK-based metrics, (3) suggest the use of in vitro and in silico tools to obtain early insights into inhaled aerosol dosimetry for ENDS, and (4) emphasize the importance of considering comprehensive clinical pharmacology outcomes to evaluate nicotine delivery systems.

Identification of Granatane Alkaloids from Duboisia myoporoides (Solanaceae) using Molecular Networking and Semisynthesis.

The Solanaceae plant family contains at least 98 genera and over 2700 species. The Duboisia genus stands out for its ability to produce pyridine and tropane alkaloids, which are relatively poorly characterized at the phytochemical level. In this study, we analyzed dried leaves of Duboisia spp. using supercritical CO2 extraction and ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry, followed by feature-based molecular networking. Thirty-one known tropane alkaloids were putatively annotated, and the identity of six (atropine, scopolamine, anisodamine, aposcopolamine, apoatropine, and noratropine) were identified using reference standards. Two new granatane alkaloids connected in the molecular network were highlighted from Duboisia myoporoides, and their α-granatane tropate and α-granatane isovalerate structures were unambiguously established by semisynthesis.

Blood and urine multi-omics analysis of the impact of e-vaping, smoking, and cessation: from exposome to molecular responses.

Cigarette smoking is a major preventable cause of morbidity and mortality. While quitting smoking is the best option, switching from cigarettes to non-combustible alternatives (NCAs) such as e-vapor products is a viable harm reduction approach for smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke. A key challenge for the clinical assessment of NCAs is that self-reported product use can be unreliable, compromising the proper evaluation of their risk reduction potential. In this cross-sectional study of 205 healthy volunteers, we combined comprehensive exposure characterization with in-depth multi-omics profiling to compare effects across four study groups: cigarette smokers (CS), e-vapor users (EV), former smokers (FS), and never smokers (NS). Multi-omics analyses included metabolomics, transcriptomics, DNA methylomics, proteomics, and lipidomics. Comparison of the molecular effects between CS and NS recapitulated several previous observations, such as increased inflammatory markers in CS. Generally, FS and EV demonstrated intermediate molecular effects between the NS and CS groups. Stratification of the FS and EV by combustion exposure markers suggested that this position on the spectrum between CS and NS was partially driven by non-compliance/dual use. Overall, this study highlights the importance of in-depth exposure characterization before biological effect characterization for any NCA assessment study.

Aerosol delivery and spatiotemporal tissue distribution of hydroxychloroquine in rat lung.

Inhalation enables the delivery of drugs directly to the lung, increasing the retention for prolonged exposure and maximizing the therapeutic index. However, the differential regional lung exposure kinetics and systemic pharmacokinetics are not fully known, and their estimation is critical for pulmonary drug delivery. The study evaluates the pharmacokinetics of hydroxychloroquine in different regions of the respiratory tract for multiple routes of administration. We also evaluated the influence of different inhaled formulations on systemic and lung pharmacokinetics by identifying suitable nebulizers followed by early characterization of emitted aerosol physicochemical properties. The salt- and freebase-based formulations required different nebulizers and generated aerosol with different physicochemical properties. An administration of hydroxychloroquine by different routes resulted in varied systemic and lung pharmacokinetics, with oral administration resulting in low tissue concentrations in all regions of the respiratory tract. A nose-only inhalation exposure resulted in higher and sustained lung concentrations of hydroxychloroquine with a lung parenchyma-to-blood ratio of 386 after 1440 min post-exposure. The concentrations of hydroxychloroquine in different regions of the respiratory tract (i.e., nasal epithelium, larynx, trachea, bronchi, and lung parenchyma) varied over time, indicating different retention kinetics. The spatiotemporal distribution of hydroxychloroquine in the lung is different due to the heterogeneity of cell types, varying blood perfusion rate, clearance mechanisms, and deposition of inhaled aerosol along the respiratory tract. In addition to highlighting the varied lung physiology, these results demonstrate the ability of the lung to retain increased levels of inhaled lysosomotropic drugs. Such findings are critical for the development of future inhalation-based therapeutics, aiming to optimize target site exposure, enable precision medicine, and ultimately enhance clinical outcomes.

Nicotine-mediated effects in neuronal and mouse models of synucleinopathy.

Introduction: Alpha-synuclein (α-Syn) aggregation, transmission, and contribution to neurotoxicity represent central mechanisms underlying Parkinson's disease. The plant alkaloid "nicotine" was reported to attenuate α-Syn aggregation in different models, but its precise mode of action remains unclear. Methods: In this study, we investigated the effect of 2-week chronic nicotine treatment on α-Syn aggregation, neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, and motor deficits in D-line α-Syn transgenic mice. We also established a novel humanized neuronal model of α-Syn aggregation and toxicity based on treatment of dopaminergic neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) with α-Syn preformed fibrils (PFF) and applied this model to investigate the effects of nicotine and other compounds and their modes of action. Results and discussion: Overall, our results showed that nicotine attenuated α-Syn-provoked neuropathology in both models. Moreover, when investigating the role of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) signaling in nicotine's neuroprotective effects in iPSC-derived dopaminergic neurons, we observed that while α4-specific antagonists reduced the nicotine-induced calcium response, α4 agonists (e.g., AZD1446 and anatabine) mediated similar neuroprotective responses against α-Syn PFF-provoked neurodegeneration. Our results show that nicotine attenuates α-Syn-provoked neuropathology in vivo and in a humanized neuronal model of synucleinopathy and that activation of α4ß2 nicotinic receptors might mediate these neuroprotective effects.

Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 on salt-coated surfaces: an in vitro study.

In the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), face masks have become a very important safety measure against the main route of transmission of the virus: droplets and aerosols. Concerns that masks contaminated with SARS-CoV-2 infectious particles could be a risk for self-contamination have emerged early in the pandemic as well as solutions to mitigate this risk. The coating of masks with sodium chloride, an antiviral and non-hazardous to health chemical, could be an option for reusable masks. To assess the antiviral properties of salt coatings deposited onto common fabrics by spraying and dipping, the present study established an in vitro bioassay using three-dimensional airway epithelial cell cultures and SARS-CoV-2 virus. Virus particles were given directly on salt-coated material, collected, and added to the cell cultures. Infectious virus particles were measured by plaque forming unit assay and in parallel viral genome copies were quantified over time. Relative to noncoated material, the sodium chloride coating significantly reduced virus replication, confirming the effectiveness of the method to prevent fomite contamination with SARS-CoV-2. In addition, the lung epithelia bioassay proved to be suitable for future evaluation of novel antiviral coatings.

Results and lessons learned from the sbv IMPROVER metagenomics diagnostics for inflammatory bowel disease challenge.

A growing body of evidence links gut microbiota changes with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), raising the potential benefit of exploiting metagenomics data for non-invasive IBD diagnostics. The sbv IMPROVER metagenomics diagnosis for inflammatory bowel disease challenge investigated computational metagenomics methods for discriminating IBD and nonIBD subjects. Participants in this challenge were given independent training and test metagenomics data from IBD and nonIBD subjects, which could be wither either raw read data (sub-challenge 1, SC1) or processed Taxonomy- and Function-based profiles (sub-challenge 2, SC2). A total of 81 anonymized submissions were received between September 2019 and March 2020. Most participants' predictions performed better than random predictions in classifying IBD versus nonIBD, Ulcerative Colitis (UC) versus nonIBD, and Crohn's Disease (CD) versus nonIBD. However, discrimination between UC and CD remains challenging, with the classification quality similar to the set of random predictions. We analyzed the class prediction accuracy, the metagenomics features by the teams, and computational methods used. These results will be openly shared with the scientific community to help advance IBD research and illustrate the application of a range of computational methodologies for effective metagenomic classification.

Tobacco Alkaloid Assessment in a DSS-Induced Colitis Mouse Model with a Fully Humanized Immune System.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) refers to chronic intestinal immune-mediated diseases including two main disease manifestations: ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). Epidemiological, clinical, and preclinical evidence has highlighted the potential anti-inflammatory properties of naturally occurring alkaloids. In the present study, we investigated the potential anti-inflammatory activities of the tobacco alkaloids nicotine and anatabine in a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced UC mouse model with a fully humanized immune system. Our results show that nicotine significantly reduced all acute colitis symptoms and improved colitis-specific endpoints, including histopathologically assessed colon inflammation, tissue damage, and mononuclear cell infiltration. The tobacco alkaloid anatabine showed similar effectiveness trends, although they were generally weaker or not significant. Gene expression analysis in the context of biological network models of IBD further pinpointed a possible mechanism by which nicotine attenuated DSS-induced colitis in humanized mice. The current study enables further investigation of possible molecular mechanisms by which tobacco alkaloids attenuate UC symptoms.

An in vitro evaluation of e-vapor products: The contributions of chemical adulteration, concentration, and device power.

Homemade e-liquids and power-adjustable vaping devices may carry higher risks than commercial formulations and fixed-power devices. This study used human macrophage-like and bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cell cultures to investigate toxicity of homemade e-liquids containing propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin (PG/VG), nicotine, vitamin E acetate (VEA), medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs), phytol, and cannabidiol (CBD). SmallAir™ organotypic epithelial cultures were exposed to aerosols generated at different power settings (10-50 W). Carbonyl levels were measured, and endpoints reflecting epithelial function (ciliary beating frequency [CBF]), integrity (transepithelial electrical resistance [TEER]), and structure (histology) were investigated. Treatment with nicotine or VEA alone or with PG/VG did not impact cell viability. CBD, phytol, and lauric acid caused cytotoxicity in both culture systems and increased lipid-laden macrophages. Exposure of SmallAir™ organotypic cultures to CBD-containing aerosols resulted in tissue injury and loss of CBF and TEER, while PG/VG alone or with nicotine or VEA did not. Aerosols generated with higher power settings had higher carbonyl concentrations. In conclusion, the presence and concentration of certain chemicals and device power may induce cytotoxicity in vitro. These results raise concerns that power-adjustable devices may generate toxic compounds and suggest that toxicity assessments should be conducted for both e-liquid formulations and their aerosols.

Systems biology reveals anatabine to be an NRF2 activator.

Anatabine, an alkaloid present in plants of the So lanaceae family (including tobacco and eggplant), has been shown to ameliorate chronic inflammatory conditions in mouse models, such as Alzheimer's disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, multiple sclerosis, and intestinal inflammation. However, the mechanisms of action of anatabine remain unclear. To understand the impact of anatabine on cellular systems and identify the molecular pathways that are perturbed, we designed a study to examine the concentration-dependent effects of anatabine on various cell types by using a systems pharmacology approach. The resulting dataset, consisting of measurements of various omics data types at different time points, was analyzed by using multiple computational techniques. To identify concentration-dependent activated pathways, we performed linear modeling followed by gene set enrichment. To predict the functional partners of anatabine and the involved pathways, we harnessed the LINCS L1000 dataset's wealth of information and implemented integer linear programming on directed graphs, respectively. Finally, we experimentally verified our key computational predictions. Using an appropriate luciferase reporter cell system, we were able to demonstrate that anatabine treatment results in NRF2 (nuclear factor-erythroid factor 2-related factor 2) translocation, and our systematic phosphoproteomic assays showed that anatabine treatment results in activation of MAPK signaling. While there are certain areas to be explored in deciphering the exact anti-inflammatory mechanisms of action of anatabine and other NRF2 activators, we believe that anatabine constitutes an interesting molecule for its therapeutic potential in NRF2-related diseases.

Application of Secondary Electrospray Ionization Coupled with High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry in Chemical Characterization of Thermally Generated Aerosols.

Inhalation as a route for administering drugs and dietary supplements has garnered significant attention over the past decade. We performed real-time analyses of aerosols using secondary electrospray ionization (SESI) technology interfaced with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), primarily developed for exhaled breath analysis with the goal to detect the main aerosol constituents. Several commercially available inhalation devices containing caffeine, melatonin, cannabidiol, and vitamin B12 were tested. Chemical characterization of the aerosols produced by these devices enabled detection of the main constituents and screening for potential contaminants, byproducts, and impurities in the aerosol. In addition, a programmable syringe pump was connected to the SESI-HRMS system to monitor aerosolized active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) such as chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin. This setup allowed us to detect caffeine, melatonin, hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, and cannabidiol in the produced aerosols. Azithromycin and vitamin B12 in the aerosols could not be detected; however, our instrument setup enabled the detection of vitamin B12 breakdown products that were generated during the aerosolization process. Positive control was realized by liquid chromatography-HRMS analyses. The compounds detected in the aerosol were confirmed by exact mass measurements of the protonated and/or deprotonated species, as well as their respective collision-induced dissociation tandem mass spectra. These results reveal the potential wide application of this technology for the real-time monitoring of aerosolized active pharmaceutical ingredients that can be administered through the inhalation route.

In vitro testing of salt coating of fabrics as a potential antiviral agent in reusable face masks.

During the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, wearing face masks in public spaces became mandatory in most countries. The risk of self-contamination when handling face masks, which was one of the earliest concerns, can be mitigated by adding antiviral coatings to the masks. In the present study, we evaluated the antiviral effectiveness of sodium chloride deposited on a fabric suitable for the manufacturing of reusable cloth masks using techniques adapted to the home environment. We tested eight coating conditions, involving both spraying and dipping methods and three salt dilutions. Influenza A H3N2 virus particles were incubated directly on the salt-coated materials, collected, and added to human 3D airway epithelial cultures. Live virus replication in the epithelia was quantified over time in collected apical washes. Relative to the non-coated material, salt deposits at or above 4.3 mg/cm2 markedly reduced viral replication. However, even for larger quantities of salt, the effectiveness of the coating remained dependent on the crystal size and distribution, which in turn depended on the coating technique. These findings confirm the suitability of salt coating as antiviral protection on cloth masks, but also emphasize that particular attention should be paid to the coating protocol when developing consumer solutions.

Crowdsourced benchmarking of taxonomic metagenome profilers: lessons learned from the sbv IMPROVER Microbiomics challenge.

BACKGROUND: Selection of optimal computational strategies for analyzing metagenomics data is a decisive step in determining the microbial composition of a sample, and this procedure is complex because of the numerous tools currently available. The aim of this research was to summarize the results of crowdsourced sbv IMPROVER Microbiomics Challenge designed to evaluate the performance of off-the-shelf metagenomics software as well as to investigate the robustness of these results by the extended post-challenge analysis. In total 21 off-the-shelf taxonomic metagenome profiling pipelines were benchmarked for their capacity to identify the microbiome composition at various taxon levels across 104 shotgun metagenomics datasets of bacterial genomes (representative of various microbiome samples) from public databases. Performance was determined by comparing predicted taxonomy profiles with the gold standard. RESULTS: Most taxonomic profilers performed homogeneously well at the phylum level but generated intermediate and heterogeneous scores at the genus and species levels, respectively. kmer-based pipelines using Kraken with and without Bracken or using CLARK-S performed best overall, but they exhibited lower precision than the two marker-gene-based methods MetaPhlAn and mOTU. Filtering out the 1% least abundance species-which were not reliably predicted-helped increase the performance of most profilers by increasing precision but at the cost of recall. However, the use of adaptive filtering thresholds determined from the sample's Shannon index increased the performance of most kmer-based profilers while mitigating the tradeoff between precision and recall. CONCLUSIONS: kmer-based metagenomic pipelines using Kraken/Bracken or CLARK-S performed most robustly across a large variety of microbiome datasets. Removing non-reliably predicted low-abundance species by using diversity-dependent adaptive filtering thresholds further enhanced the performance of these tools. This work demonstrates the applicability of computational pipelines for accurately determining taxonomic profiles in clinical and environmental contexts and exemplifies the power of crowdsourcing for unbiased evaluation.

The clove (Syzygium aromaticum) genome provides insights into the eugenol biosynthesis pathway.

The clove (Syzygium aromaticum) is an important tropical spice crop in global trade. Evolving environmental pressures necessitate modern characterization and selection techniques that are currently inaccessible to clove growers owing to the scarcity of genomic and genetic information. Here, we present a 370-Mb high-quality chromosome-scale genome assembly for clove. Comparative genomic analysis between S. aromaticum and Eucalyptus grandis-both species of the Myrtaceae family-reveals good genome structure conservation and intrachromosomal rearrangements on seven of the eleven chromosomes. We report genes that belong to families involved in the biosynthesis of eugenol, the major bioactive component of clove products. On the basis of our transcriptomic and metabolomic findings, we propose a hypothetical scenario in which eugenol acetate plays a key role in high eugenol accumulation in clove leaves and buds. The clove genome is a new contribution to omics resources for the Myrtaceae family and an important tool for clove research.

Toxicological Assessment of Flavor Ingredients in E-Vapor Products.

Many flavor ingredients are often used in potentially reduced-risk tobacco products (such as e-vapor products). Although most are "generally recognized as safe (GRAS)" when used in food, there is limited information available on their long-term health effects when delivered by inhalation. While obtaining route-of-exposure-specific toxicological data on flavor ingredients is critical to product evaluation, the large number of individual flavor ingredients available and their potential combinations render classical toxicological assessment approaches impractical, as they may require years of preclinical investigations and thousands of laboratory animals. Therefore, we propose a pragmatic approach in which flavor ingredients are initially assigned to groups of structurally related compounds (Flavor Groups), from which flavor group representatives (FGR) are then selected and tested individually and as a mixture in vitro and in vivo. The premise is that structurally related compounds would have comparable metabolic and biological activity and that the data generated using FGRs could support the toxicological assessment of other structurally related flavor ingredients of their respective Flavor Groups. This approach is explained in a step-wise manner and exemplified by a case study, along with its strengths, limitations as well as recommendations for further confirmatory testing. Once completed, this FGR approach could significantly reduce the time and resources required for filling the data gap in understanding the health risks of many flavor ingredients while also minimizing the need for laboratory animals.

Differentiating the Neuropharmacological Properties of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor-Activating Alkaloids.

Alkaloids that target nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) are of great interest because of the critical role they play in mood and anxiety. However, understanding of the neuropharmacological effects of nicotinic alkaloids, such as cotinine and anatabine, is very limited. In this study, we investigated the neuropharmacological effects of three naturally occurring alkaloids-nicotine, cotinine, and anatabine-in vitro and in vivo. A single injection of nicotine induced anxiolytic-like behavioral features in mice by using the SmartCube® behavioral profiling system, while cotinine and anatabine had no detectable effect. The results were corroborated by using the zebrafish novel tank test (NTT), which showed a profound anxiolytic-like effect induced by multiple doses of nicotine after a single 20-min treatment. When the regulation of dopamine and norepinephrine release-the neurotransmitter systems relevant for anxiety-were examined in vitro, we found that nicotine stimulated the release of both norepinephrine and dopamine, while cotinine and anatabine mainly stimulated the dopamine release. The molecular targets of nicotine were confirmed to be nAChRs with its most potent activities against α4ß2 and α6/3ß2ß3 subtypes in vitro. Anatabine was a weaker agonist for these receptors than nicotine. Cotinine was the least potent nAChR compound, only being able to activate α4ß2 and α6/3ß2ß3 subtypes at high doses and no detectable activities against α3ß4 and α7 subtypes at the concentrations tested. The observed effects were unlikely due to the off-target effect, because these alkaloids did not bind or regulate >160 other molecular targets in vitro. Thus, the present results suggest that natural nicotinic alkaloids can induce an anxiolytic-like behavior in nonclinical animal models, potency of which may depend on the activation of various nAChRs and regulation of various neurotransmitter systems. Further investigations would help understand their effects on humans, because non-clinical studies should not be taken as a direct indication for human behavior and nicotine is not risk free.

Causal biological network models for reactive astrogliosis: a systems approach to neuroinflammation.

Astrocytes play a central role in the neuroimmune response by responding to CNS pathologies with diverse molecular and morphological changes during the process of reactive astrogliosis. Here, we used a computational biological network model and mathematical algorithms that allow the interpretation of high-throughput transcriptomic datasets in the context of known biology to study reactive astrogliosis. We gathered available mechanistic information from the literature into a comprehensive causal biological network (CBN) model of astrocyte reactivity. The CBN model was built in the Biological Expression Language, which is both human-readable and computable. We characterized the CBN with a network analysis of highly connected nodes and demonstrated that the CBN captures relevant astrocyte biology. Subsequently, we used the CBN and transcriptomic data to identify key molecular pathways driving the astrocyte phenotype in four CNS pathologies: samples from mouse models of lipopolysaccharide-induced endotoxemia, Alzheimer's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; and samples from multiple sclerosis patients. The astrocyte CBN provides a new tool to identify causal mechanisms and quantify astrogliosis based on transcriptomic data.

Pulmonary Delivery of Aerosolized Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine to Treat COVID-19: In Vitro Experimentation to Human Dosing Predictions.

In vitro screening for pharmacological activity of existing drugs showed chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to be effective against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Oral administration of these compounds to obtain desired pulmonary exposures resulted in dose-limiting systemic toxicity in humans. However, pulmonary drug delivery enables direct and rapid administration to obtain higher local tissue concentrations in target tissue. In this work, inhalable formulations for thermal aerosolization of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine were developed, and their physicochemical properties were characterized. Thermal aerosolization of 40 mg/mL chloroquine and 100 mg/mL hydroxychloroquine formulations delivered respirable aerosol particle sizes with 0.15 and 0.33 mg per 55 mL puff, respectively. In vitro toxicity was evaluated by exposing primary human bronchial epithelial cells to aerosol generated from Vitrocell. An in vitro exposure to 7.24 µg of chloroquine or 7.99 µg hydroxychloroquine showed no significant changes in cilia beating, transepithelial electrical resistance, and cell viability. The pharmacokinetics of inhaled aerosols was predicted by developing a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model that included a detailed species-specific respiratory tract physiology and lysosomal trapping. Based on the model predictions, inhaling emitted doses comprising 1.5 mg of chloroquine or 3.3 mg hydroxychloroquine three times a day may yield therapeutically effective concentrations in the lung. Inhalation of higher doses further increased effective concentrations in the lung while maintaining lower systemic concentrations. Given the theoretically favorable risk/benefit ratio, the clinical significance for pulmonary delivery of aerosolized chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 needs to be established in rigorous safety and efficacy studies. Graphical abstract.

Causal Biological Network Model for Inflammasome Signaling Applied for Interpreting Transcriptomic Changes in Various Inflammatory States.

Virtually any stressor that alters the cellular homeostatic state may result in an inflammatory response. As a critical component of innate immunity, inflammasomes play a prominent role in the inflammatory response. The information on inflammasome biology is rapidly growing, thus creating the need for structuring it into a model that can help visualize and enhance the understanding of underlying biological processes. Causal biological network (CBN) models provide predictive power for novel disease mechanisms and treatment outcomes. We assembled the available literature information on inflammasome activation into the CBN model and scored it with publicly available transcriptomic datasets that address viral infection of the lungs, osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and aging. The scoring inferred pathway activation leading to NLRP3 inflammasome activation in these diverse conditions, demonstrating that the CBN model provides a platform for interpreting transcriptomic data in the context of inflammasome activation.