Are Reactive Oxygen Species Always Detrimental to Pathogens?
Year: 2013
Type: review
Abstract: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are deadly weapons used by phagocytes and other cell types, such as lung epithelial cells, against pathogens. ROS can kill pathogens directly by causing oxidative damage to biocompounds or indirectly by stimulating pathogen elimination by various nonoxidative mechanisms, including pattern recognition receptors signaling, autophagy, neutrophil extracellular trap formation, and T-lymphocyte responses. Thus, one should expect that the inhibition of ROS production promote infection. Increasing evidences support that in certain particular infections, antioxidants decrease and prooxidants increase pathogen burden. In this study, we review the classic infections that are controlled by ROS and the cases in which ROS appear as promoters of infection, challenging the paradigm. We discuss the possible mechanisms by which ROS could promote particular infections. These mechanisms are still not completely clear but include the metabolic effects of ROS on pathogen physiology, ROS-induced damage to the immune system, and ROS-induced activation of immune defense mechanisms that are subsequently hijacked by particular pathogens to act against more effective microbicidal mechanisms of the immune system. The effective use of antioxidants as therapeutic agents against certain infections is a realistic possibility that is beginning to be applied against viruses.
Source: Antioxidants and Redox Signaling
Authors: Claudia N. Paiva, Marcelo T. Bozza
Institution: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Language: English
Subfield: Immunology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2114809075