There are six human genes that encode gasdermin family proteins. The proteins typically contain a N-terminal pore-forming domain (PFD) and a C-terminal repressor domain (RD) [2]. Gasdermins are cleaved by caspases to free the PFD which polymerises to create the large cell membrane pores which cause pyroptosis. As examples, gasdermins D and E are cleaved by caspase-1 and caspase-3 respectively.

1. He WT, Wan H, Hu L, Chen P, Wang X, Huang Z, Yang ZH, Zhong CQ, Han J. (2015) Gasdermin D is an executor of pyroptosis and required for interleukin-1β secretion. Cell Res, 25 (12): 1285-98. [PMID:26611636]

2. Kovacs SB, Miao EA. (2017) Gasdermins: Effectors of Pyroptosis. Trends Cell Biol, 27 (9): 673-684. [PMID:28619472]

3. Liu X, Zhang Z, Ruan J, Pan Y, Magupalli VG, Wu H, Lieberman J. (2016) Inflammasome-activated gasdermin D causes pyroptosis by forming membrane pores. Nature, 535 (7610): 153-8. [PMID:27383986]

4. Ma J, Zhu F, Zhao M, Shao F, Yu D, Ma J, Zhang X, Li W, Qian Y, Zhang Y et al.. (2021) SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid suppresses host pyroptosis by blocking Gasdermin D cleavage. EMBO J, 40 (18): e108249. [PMID:34296442]

5. Pandeya A, Li L, Li Z, Wei Y. (2019) Gasdermin D (GSDMD) as a new target for the treatment of infection. Medchemcomm, 10 (5): 660-667. [PMID:31191857]