Potassium efflux, lysosomal acidification, cathepsin B release and ROS production are involved in inflammasome activation by <i>M. kansasii</i>.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Macrophages were treated with KCl and Glibenclamide (Gliben) at the indicated concentration for 30 min, and subsequently infected with <i>M. kansasii</i> at an MOI of 10 for 16 h. Supernatants from infected cells were harvested and assayed for IL-1β by ELISA. (<b>B</b> and <b>C</b>) THP-1 derived macrophages were infected with <i>M. kansasii</i> at an MOI of 10. N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), NH₄Cl, chloroquine (CQ) and CA-074-Me (CA-074) were added at the indicated concentration as described in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0036292#s4" target="_blank">Materials and Methods</a>. Supernatants harvested at 16 h post-infection were assayed for IL-1βsecretion by ELISA. Error bars represent standard deviations of at least three independent experiments, and significance was calculated using a two-tailed <i>t</i> test. ** denote a <i>p</i> value of <0.001 compared to untreated infected cells.