A dsRNA detector in the immune toolkit: Nod-like receptor (NLR) proteins recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns within cells, which triggers the formation of signaling complexes called inflammasomes. These complexes then initiate pyroptosis, a highly inflammatory form of cell death. Recent work has shown that a rhinovirus protease can activate the human NLRP1 inflammasome, but it was unclear whether this is the only pathogen-derived trigger for NLRP1. Bauernfried et al. report that long, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) generated in the course of Semliki Forest virus infection binds and activates NLRP1 in epithelial cells. dsRNA binding triggered NLRP1 to acquire adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) activity, a common feature of activated NLR proteins. Thus, in addition to its ability to recognize viral protease activity, human NLRP1 can act as a genuine sensor of virus-associated nucleic acids. Science , this issue p. eabd0811

Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Various studies exist about the molecular mechanisms of viral infection. However, such information is spread across many publications and it is very time-consuming to integrate, and exploit. We develop CoVex, an interactive online platform for SARS-CoV-2 host interactome exploration and drug (target) identification. CoVex integrates virus-human protein interactions, human protein-protein interactions, and drug-target interactions. It allows visual exploration of the virus-host interactome and implements systems medicine algorithms for network-based prediction of drug candidates. Thus, CoVex is a resource to understand molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity and to prioritize candidate therapeutics. We investigate recent hypotheses on a systems biology level to explore mechanistic virus life cycle drivers, and to extract drug repurposing candidates. CoVex renders COVID-19 drug research systems-medicine-ready by giving the scientific community direct access to network medicine algorithms. It is available at https://exbio.wzw.tum.de/covex/.