APOPTOSIS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Abstract

Apoptosis as immunomodulating form of cell death plays a stabilizing role in maintaining optimal number of cells in an organism. The biological essence of cell death in infectious diseases is poorly reflected, and the concept of negative and positive values of apoptosis in the pathogenesis of diseases is presented ambiguously. The review focuses on the classical caspase-dependent apoptosis of innate and adaptive immunity cells, whose reactivity is associated with the initiation of infectious processes. Some causative agents of bacterial and viral infections can be triggers or inhibitors of apoptosis in a eukaryotic host cell, avoiding the factors of the immune system. In severe infectious diseases that occur with the development of sepsis, a fatal importance has the massive apoptotic loss of lymphocytes expressed lymphocyte apoptosis that leads to immunodeficiency states and the majority of patients corresponds to premortem decrease in circulating lymphocytes. Further studies on the identification of the molecular elements whereby pathogenic agents cause the cell death effort to develop new therapeutic approaches, including inhibition of apoptosis, to prevent the progression of severe courses of infections.

Keywords

• apoptosis
• infectious diseases
• immune system
• neutrophils
• macrophages
• lymphocytes