脂筏与感染性疾病

Lipid rafts and infectious diseases

脂筏是生物膜中含有特殊脂质和蛋白质的微区,不仅是跨膜信号转导等多种生命活动的重要参与者,而且在感染性疾病的发生和发展中扮演了重要的角色。脂筏是多种病原体进入宿主细胞的位点,支持病毒粒子的组装和出芽,其信号转导功能一方面可以启动宿主细胞的保护性免疫应答,另一方面也被病原体利用,以利于病原体的传播和疾病发生。此外,脂筏在朊蛋白感染、HCV基因组复制、多种细菌毒素作用以及维持疟原虫的胞内寄生生活等方面也都有重要作用。脂筏在感染性疾病中的重要作用提示,它很有可能成为扭转这些疾病发生和进程以及治疗这些疾病的重要入手点。

Lipid rafts are plasma microdomains with special composition of lipids and proteins, which not only play an important role in some biological functions as signal transduction, but also extensively function in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. Lipid rafts are the entry site of many pathogens into host cells, and support assembly and budding of various viruses. With their function of signal transduction, lipid rafts can actively initiate protective immune responses of the host cell against invading pathogens, and on the other hand are often hijacked by pathogens to facilitate their spreading and pathogenesis. Furthermore, lipid rafts are involved in such diverse aspects of pathogen attack as prion infection, HCV genome replication, bacteria toxin effect as well as malarial parasite life cycle. The important functions that lipid rafts play in infectious diseases are indicative of their potential application in fighting against these diseases.