Abstract
Macrophages are essential innate immune cells that contribute to host defense during infection. An important feature of macrophages is their ability to respond to extracellular cues and to adopt different phenotypes and functions in response to these stimuli. The evidence accumulated in the last decade has highlighted the crucial role of metabolic reprogramming during macrophage activation in infectious context. Thus, understanding and manipulation of macrophage immunometabolism during infection could be of interest to develop therapeutic strategies. In this review, we focus on 5 major metabolic pathways including glycolysis, pentose phosphate pathway, fatty acid oxidation and synthesis, tricarboxylic acid cycle and amino acid metabolism and discuss how they sustain and regulate macrophage immune function in response to parasitic, bacterial and viral infections as well as trained immunity. At the end, we assess whether some drugs including those used in clinic and in development can target macrophage immunometabolism for potential therapy during infection with an emphasis on SARS-CoV2 infection.
Highlights
Thierry Gauthier and Wanjun Chen*Mucosal Immunology Section, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, United States
Macrophages are professional phagocytes patrolling most of the tissues, helping to maintain homeostasis and contributing to the first line of defense against pathogens [1]
The major products generated by the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle are NADH and FADH2 which can be transferred into the electron transport chain to support the oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and the efficient generation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) [26]
Summary
Mucosal Immunology Section, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, United States. Edited by: Jan Fric, International Clinical Research Center (FNUSA-ICRC), Czechia. Mireille Laforge, U1141 Neuroprotection du cerveau en developpement (INSERM), France. Specialty section: This article was submitted to Molecular Innate Immunity, a section of the journal
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