Streptococcus makes the cut: Gasdermin A-induced pyroptosis

The gasdermin family of cell death executor proteins are activated by different proteases under different physiological conditions. A recent study by Deng et al. in Nature revealed that the cysteine protease SpeB from the human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes directly cleaves and activates Gasdermin A to induce pyroptosis in skin cells.