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Immune surveillance is an integral part of the innate immune system, involving the continuous monitoring of peripheral tissues to detect and respond to pathogens, infected cells, or cancerous cells. This surveillance is conducted primarily by natural killer (NK) cells and phagocytes, which employ distinct but complementary mechanisms to identify and eliminate threats.
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I'm Infected, Eat Me! Innate Immunity Mediated by Live, Infected Cells Signaling To Be Phagocytosed.

Tim Birkle1, G C Brown2

  • 1Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Infection and Immunity
|February 9, 2021
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Live, infected host cells can signal immune cells to engulf them, a novel innate immunity mechanism. This process, involving specific signals and reduced "don

Keywords:
immunityinfectionintracellular bacteriaphagocytosisphagoptosisvirus

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Area of Science:

  • Immunology
  • Cell Biology
  • Pathogen Defense

Background:

  • Innate immunity relies on physical barriers, complement activation, immune cell recruitment, phagocytosis, and antigen presentation.
  • Existing knowledge focuses on pathogen clearance rather than infected host cell removal as a primary innate defense.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose and review evidence for a novel innate immune mechanism involving the phagocytosis of live, infected host cells.
  • To elucidate the molecular signals and pathways mediating this process.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature on cellular signaling and immune responses.
  • Analysis of molecular mechanisms by which infected cells signal for phagocytosis.

Main Results:

  • Infected host cells release 'find-me' signals (nucleotides, chemokines) and expose 'eat-me' signals (phosphatidylserine, calreticulin).
  • Infected cells also utilize opsonins and downregulate 'don't-eat-me' signals (CD47, MHC1, sialic acid) to promote phagocytosis.
  • Phagocytosis of infected cells can lead to pathogen destruction and potentially induce adaptive immunity via cross-presentation.

Conclusions:

  • Phagocytosis of live infected cells represents a novel mode of innate immunity.
  • This mechanism contributes to infection control by eliminating infected host cells.
  • It may also bridge innate and adaptive immunity through antigen cross-presentation.