Western blotting, qPCR and cell assays

These methods were, aside from minor changes, performed as described previously (Devi et al., 2012, 2013, 2017). For total protein extraction and western blotting, RIPA buffer was used as were precast polyacrylamide gels from BioRad. ImageJ was used to quantitate the blots. Trizol (Ambion) was used to isolate total RNA whereas the iScript™ cDNA Synthesis Kit and SYBR Green reagent (BioRad, Hercules, USA) were used for cDNA synthesis and qPCR detection. The MitoProbe™ JC-1 Assay Kit (Cat# {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"M34152","term_id":"343833","term_text":"M34152"}}M34152) and ATP Determination Kit (Cat# A22066) were purchased from Thermo Fisher Scientific and used according to their instructions. Cell viability was measured using a fluorescence plate reader and the LIVE/DEAD™ Viability/Cytotoxicity Kit for mammalian cells (Cat# L3224, Invitrogen). For the caspase-1 and cathepsin L assays, the FAM-FLICA^® Caspase-1 Assay Kit and Magic Red Cathepsin L Assay Kit, respectively, were purchased from Immunohistochemistry Technologies (Bloomington, USA).