Cell autophagy and virus infection.
- Author:
Ye TAO
1
;
Xiao-Feng REN
Author Information
1. Laboratory of Molecular Aetiology, Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China. taoye_0125@126.com
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH:
Animals;
Autophagy;
physiology;
Humans;
Virus Diseases;
immunology
- From:
Chinese Journal of Virology
2013;29(1):76-84
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Autophagy is a catabolic process including self-degradation of intracellular components via the lysosomal machinery. The biological behavior can be regarded as defense mechanism, maintaining the cell growth, metabolism and homeostasis etc. To date, plenty of autophagy related genes have been identified. In addition, it has been recognized that autophagy plays important roles in the context of virus infection: it can transport viruses from cytoplasm to lysosome to degrade viruses; it can transfer viral nucleic acid to intracellular sensors to activate innate immunity; it can also present viral antigens to MHC class II molecules to activate adaptive immune responses. Autophagy may serve as a double-edged sword to intracellular pathogens. On one side, autophagy may degrade and clear invading microorganisms by xenophagy; on the other side, some microorganisms may develop mechanisms to escape from autophagy for their survival. In this paper, the notion of autophay and the function of autophagy related genes are reviewed. Furthermore, the association of autophagy with a variety of viruses is discussed.
