In vivo models suggest that nitroglycerin can induce NLRP3 inflammasome activation (evidenced by IL-1beta release).

https://jneuroinflammation.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12974-019-1459-7

Other stimulants:

(1) beta-amyloid: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2017.00063/full

(2) Streptococcus pneumoniae challenge: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2017.00063/full

List of commercially available inflammasome inducers from Invivogen:

https://www.invivogen.com/inflammasome-inducers

Alum NLRP3 Inflammasome Inducer; Aluminium hydroxide

ATP NLRP3 Inflammasome Inducer - Adenosine 5'-triphosphate disodium salt

CPPD Crystals NLRP3 Inflammasome Inducer - Calcium Pyrophosphate Dihydrate crystals

Hemozoin NLRP3 Inflammasome Inducer - Synthetic heme crystal

MSU Crystals NLRP3 Inflammasome Inducer - Monosodium Urate Crystals

Nano-SiO2 NLRP3 inflammasome inducer; Silica dioxide nanoparticles

Nigericin NLRP3 Inflammasome Inducer - Nigericin, sodium salt

TDB Mincle Agonist - Synthetic analog of the cord factor

Canonical Inflammasome Inducers - AIM2 Inflammasome

Poly(dA:dT) RIG-I Agonist - CDS Agonist - AIM2 Inflammasome Inducer

Poly(dA:dT) Rhodamine RIG-I Agonist - CDS Agonist - AIM2 Inflammasome Inducer - Rhodamine labeled

Canonical Inflammasome Inducers - NLRC4 Inflammasome

FLA-PA Ultrapure TLR5 Agonist - Flagellin from P. aeruginosa

FLA-ST (Standard or Ultrapure) TLR5 Agonist - Flagellin from S. typhimurium

Canonical Inflammasome Inducers - NLRP1 Inflammasome

L18-MDP NOD2 Agonist - Muramyldipeptide with a C18 fatty acid chain

MDP NOD2 Agonist - Muramyldipeptide (L isoform)

Non-canonical Inflammasome Inducers

E. coli OMVs Caspase 11-4/5 inducer; E. coli outer membrane vesicles (OMVs)

Curdlan Dectin-1 Agonist - Beta-1,3-glucan from A. faecalis

HKCA Dectin-1 Agonist - Heat-killed C. albicans

Pustulan Dectin-1 Agonist - Beta-D-glucan from lichen Lasallia pustulata

Zymosan Depleted Dectin-1 Agonist - Hot alkali treated zymosan

Make sure you are working with cells of low passage numbers.

Check also your FBS (serum) level. It should not be too high.

Some people use reduced FBS or even no FBS for expression study. Consult more papers for methods. Good luck.

Why not first confirm that it isn't working by a robust, standardized method such as ELISA?

Nai-Kei Wong Thank you ! Indeed, cells starvation is necessary sometimes..

Jordan R. Yaron Yes you are right. Actually we already tried some MSD multiplexing and the results weren't that encouraging..

Thank you for your answer!