Viral activation of cellular metabolism

Abstract

To ensure optimal environments for their replication and spread, viruses have evolved to alter many host cell pathways. In the last decade, metabolomic studies have shown that eukaryotic viruses induce large-scale alterations in host cellular metabolism. Most viruses examined to date induce aerobic glycolysis also known as the Warburg effect. Many viruses tested also induce fatty acid synthesis as well as glutaminolysis. These modifications of carbon source utilization by infected cells can increase available energy for virus replication and virion production, provide specific cellular substrates for virus particles and create viral replication niches while increasing infected cell survival. Each virus species also likely requires unique metabolic changes for successful spread and recent research has identified additional virus-specific metabolic changes induced by many virus species. A better understanding of the metabolic alterations required for each virus may lead to novel therapeutic approaches through targeted inhibition of specific cellular metabolic pathways.

Metabolic regulation of immune responses: therapeutic opportunities

“…The first immune responders to bacterial infection, neutrophils, rely on glucose and glycolysis for key effector functions, including the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (67)(68)(69). Viral infection may also lead to decreased glucose availability for infiltrating immune cells due to the infiltration of immune cells and the fact that virally infected cells increase glucose uptake to facilitate viral replication (70)(71)(72)(73)(74)(75). Virally infected cells also increase the uptake of other nutrients, including the amino acid glutamine (74,76), which is important for effector T cell responses (77).…”

Role of metabolism during viral infections, and crosstalk with the innate immune system

“…Dengue Virus (DENV) (20). The latter has been reported for several viruses, in a number of studies reviewed by Sánchez and collaborators (3). Among others, the main altered metabolic pathways are glycolysis, fatty acid synthesis (FAS), and glutaminolysis (3).…”

“…Recently, a number of studies have highlighted the importance of studying metabolism for a better understanding of the infection process caused by many pathogens (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6). In particular, viruses are infective particles that need to take advantage of the host metabolism, hijacking the cellular machinery in order to replicate (4,6,7), and that has also been demonstrated for viruses in other species (8,9).…”

Recent advances in CMV tropism, latency, and diagnosis during aging

“…Host metabolism plays an essential role in the replication of HCMV Goodwin et al 2015;Sanchez and Lagunoff 2015). The products of metabolic pathways provide all of the energy and building materials (e.g., nucleotides for the virus genome, lipids for the envelope membrane) required for productive infection.…”