Eukaryotic cells can die from physical trauma, resulting in necrosis. Alternately, they can die via programmed cell death upon stimulation of specific signalling pathways. Here we discuss the utility of four cell death pathways in innate immune defence against bacterial and viral infection: apoptosis, necroptosis, pyroptosis and NETosis. We describe the interactions that interweave different programmed cell death pathways, which create complex signalling networks that cross-guard each other in the evolutionary arms race with pathogens. Finally, we describe how the resulting cell corpses — apoptotic bodies, pore-induced intracellular traps (PITs) and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) — promote clearance of infection.

Production of type I interferon (IFN; IFN-αβ) increases host susceptibility to Listeria monocytogenes, whereas type II IFN (IFN-γ) activates macrophages to resist infection. We show that these opposing immunological effects of IFN-αβ and IFN-γ occur because of cross talk between the respective signaling pathways. We found that cultured macrophages infected with L. monocytogenes were refractory to IFN-γ treatment as a result of down-regulation of the IFN-γ receptor (IFNGR). The soluble factor responsible for these effects was identified as host IFN-αβ. Accordingly, macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs) showed reduced IFNGR1 expression and reduced responsiveness to IFN-γ during systemic infection of IFN-αβ–responsive mice. Furthermore, the increased resistance of mice lacking the IFN-αβ receptor (IFNAR−/−) to L. monocytogenes correlated with increased expression of IFN-γ–dependent activation markers by macrophages and DCs and was reversed by depletion of IFN-γ. Thus, IFN-αβ produced in response to bacterial infection and other stimuli antagonizes the host response to IFN-γ by down-regulating the IFNGR. Such cross talk permits prioritization of IFN-αβ–type immune responses and may contribute to the beneficial effects of IFN-β in treatment of inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

The NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasomes activate caspase-1 in response to bacterial type III secretion systems (T3SS). Inadvertent injection of the T3SS rod protein and flagellin into the cytosol are detected through murine NAIP2 and NAIP5/6, respectively. Here, we identify the agonist for the orphan murine NAIP1 receptor as the T3SS needle protein. NAIP1 is poorly expressed in resting mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs), however, priming with poly(I:C) induces it, and confers needle protein sensitivity. Further, overexpression of NAIP1 in immortalized BMMs by retroviral transduction enabled needle detection. In contrast, peritoneal cavity macrophages basally express NAIP1 and respond to needle protein robustly independent of priming. Human macrophages are known to only express one NAIP gene, which detects the needle protein, but not rod or flagellin. Thus, murine NAIP1 is functionally analogous to human NAIP.

Summary Pyroptosis is a form of programmed, inflammatory cell death that is dependent on the activation of a cysteine protease Caspase-1. In this chapter, we describe an enzymatic assay for the detection of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) released by dead or dying cells during pyroptosis using a commercially available kit. We also discuss another simple and cost-effective method to measure LDH adapted from Decker et al.(1).