Abstract
The tumor microenvironment (TME) is crucial in cancer onset, progression and response to treatment. It is characterized by an intricate interaction of immune cells and cytokines involved in tumor development. Among these, inflammasomes are oligomeric molecular platforms and play a key role in inflammatory response and immunity. Inflammasome activation is initiated upon triggering of pattern recognition receptors (Toll-like receptors, NOD-like receptors, and Absent in melanoma like receptors), on the surface of immune cells with the recruitment of caspase-1 by an adaptor apoptosis-associated speck-like protein. This structure leads to the activation of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18 and participates in different biological processes exerting its effects. To date, the Nod-Like Receptor Protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome has been well studied and its involvement has been established in different cancer diseases. In this review, we discuss the structure, biology and mechanisms of inflammasomes with a special focus on the specific role of NLRP3 in breast cancer (BC) and in the sub-group of triple negative BC. The NLRP3 inflammasome and its down-stream pathways could be considered novel potential tumor biomarkers and could open new frontiers in BC treatment.