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Updated: Sep 6, 2025

Immunometabolic Circuits in Infection for Advancing Host Directed Therapies
Published on: September 13, 2024
Roles of Interleukin-6-mediated immunometabolic reprogramming in COVID-19 and other viral infection-associated
Ying-Shuang Li1, Hua-Cheng Ren1, Jian-Hua Cao1
1Intravenous Drug Administration Center, Department of Pharmacy, The Third People's Hospital of Qingdao, Qingdao, Shandong 266041, P.R. China.
Abstract:
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a highly pleiotropic glycoprotein factor that can modulate innate and adaptive immunity as well as various aspects of metabolism, including glycolysis, fatty acid oxidation and oxidative phosphorylation. Recently, the expression and release of IL-6 is shown to be significantly increased in numerous diseases related to virus infection, and this increase is positively correlated with the disease severity. Immunity and metabolism are two highly integrated and interdependent systems, the balance between them plays a pivotal role in maintaining body homeostasis. IL-6-elicited inflammatory response is found to be closely associated with metabolic disorder in patients with viral infection. This brief review summarizes the regulatory role of IL-6 in immunometabolic reprogramming among seven viral infection-associated diseases.
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