Autophagy and inflammatory cell death, partners of innate immunity
Michele S Swanson1, Ari B Molofsky
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. mswanson@umich.edu
Abstract:
By law in the evolutionary jungle, any host defense mechanism that efficiently kills microbes also exerts a strong selective pressure for tolerant variants to emerge. As a consequence, pathogens can be exploited as powerful tools to examine host defense mechanisms. Recent studies of the confrontation between macrophages and the opportunistic pathogen Legionella pneumophila have revealed a regulatory mechanism that may link autophagy to pyroptosis, a type of programmed cell death. Building from the extensive literature on autophagy, cell death, and innate immunity, we propose here a testable model in which the NOD-LRR protein Naip5 dictates whether murine macrophages elevate autophagy or pyroptosis as a barrier to infection.
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