昆虫先天免疫调控机制的研究进展

RESEARCH PROGRESS ON INNATE IMMUNE REGULATORY MECHANISMS IN INSECTS

在自然环境中,昆虫会和微生物病原体发生广泛的接触。其中,媒介昆虫携带的病毒等病原会导致严重的人类疾病或动物疫病。而昆虫主要通过先天免疫系统来应对病原体的感染。昆虫先天免疫按照其组织和作用方式的不同主要分为细胞和体液免疫。细胞免疫指由血细胞介导的吞噬、集结和包囊反应。而体液免疫则主要依靠脂肪体细胞所分泌的免疫蛋白,通过抗菌肽或黑化反应来抵御病原体。抗菌肽的激活转录,离不开相应的免疫信号通路的参与,如:Toll、IMD、JAK/STAT等。昆虫先天免疫的研究会促进新方法的开发以保护人类和动物宿主免受媒介传播病原的威胁。

Insects frequently encounter microbial infections in their natural environment.Infections such as viruses carried by vector arthropods can cause serious human illness or animal epidemics.However,insects rely primarily on their innate immune system to defend themselves against pathogenic infections.Based on its structure and effector mechanisms,the immune system primarily comprises cellular and humoral immunity.Cellular immunity involves phagocytosis,agglutination,and encapsulation,carried out by hemocytes.Humoral immunity mostly depends on immunological proteins generated by adipose cells to protect against infections using antimicrobial peptides or melanization reactions.Antimicrobial peptide synthesis contributed significantly to specific immune signalling pathways including Toll,IMD and JAK/STAT.Studying insects'natural defences would help develop new ways to protect humans and animals from vector-borne diseases.