Fig. 3

Relative expression of genes coding for NLRP3 inflammasome in HeLa 229 cells post-stimulation with LPS and ATP. The effect of three test doses (0.6 µg/ml, 6 µg/ml and 12 µg/ml) of CSNP and gCSNP on the expression of genes coding for NLRP3 inflammasome complex have been represented. The expression of A NLRP3, B ASC (PYCARD), C Caspase 1 and D P2RX7 gene is represented relative to their expression in HeLa 229 cells after stimulation with LPS (0 h) and ATP (3.5 h). The test nanoparticles were administered at 0 h and harvested at 4.5 h of the experiments. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 ***p < 0.001 and ****p < 0.0001. n > 3. The relative mRNA expression of NLRP3 (Fig. 3A) and PYCARD (Fig. 3B) genes was observed to be significantly (p < 0.0001) downregulated in HeLa 229 cells for all the three treatment doses with CSNP as well as for the two treatment doses of 0.6 µg/ml and 6 µg/ml with gCSNP. However, a significant upregulation (p < 0.0001) was noted in the relative mRNA expression of both NLRP3 as well as PYCARD genes when treated with 12 µg/ml of gCSNP. However, at 0.6 µg/ml of gCSNP. The downregulation observed for NLRP3 (~ 25-fold) was thrice of that observed with CSNP (~ eightfold). But, downregulation for NLRP3 at 6 µg/ml was observed to be ~ 20-fold with both CSNP and gCSNP. In contrast at 12 µg/ml, although CSNP downregulated the expression of NLRP3 by ~ 20-fold, gCSNP upregulated its expression by ~ 12-fold. In case of PYCARD, its downregulation at 0.6 µg/ml with CSNP (~ 15-fold) was three times more compared to that of gCSNP (~ fivefold)