FMF is an inherited autoinflammatory syndrome, characterized by attacks of painful periodic fever caused by diffuse serositis and risk of secondary amyloidosis due to IL-1β-mediated inflammation.
In a previous study, using a next generation sequencing approach, we found many rare variants and some functional polymorphisms in genes related to autoinflammatory syndromes (AID): CECR1, MEFV, MVK, NLRP3, NOD2, PSTPIP1 and TNFRSF1A in our BD cohort.
The nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat/pyrin domain-containing-3 (NALP3) inflammasome, which is required for synthesis of interleukin-1β, has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several autoinflammatory syndromes.
Extensive genetic testing revealed that the patient was heterozygous for both TNFRSF1A p.R92Q and MEFVp.M694I mutations leading to an autoinflammatory syndrome characterized by amyloid deposition as the sole manifestation.
In this review we will discuss the role of IL-1β and the inflammasomes in host defence and how mutations of two genes, NLRP3 and PYRIN, leads to the autoinflammatory syndromes, cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes (CAPS) and familial Mediterranean fever (FMF).