Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2020, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (1): 27-34.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2020.01.004

• REVIEW • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Mechanisms of Inflammasome Activation and the Research Progresses on the Roles of Inflammasomes in the Host Defense against Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection

WANG Jianhong1,2, XU Zhaokun1,2, LI Wu1,2*   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Conservation and Utilization of Special Biological Resources in the Western, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China;
    2. School of Life Science, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
  • Received:2019-07-20 Online:2020-01-23 Published:2020-01-17

Abstract: Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by the infection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). It is a severe pulmonary disease and an important public health burden at present. It is estimated that about 23% of the world's population is infected with Mtb. Although many Mtb-infected people do not eventually develop active TB disease, there is still millions of people die of TB worldwide every year. Great effort has been made to reveal the pathogenic mechanism of Mtb in order to ultimately overcome TB. The inflammasomes are a group of polyprotein complexes that accumulate in the cytoplasm of infected or damaged cells. Inflammasomes can recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or host-derived damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). So, inflammasomes play important roles in the host defense against many infectious diseases. In this review, we summarized the activation mechanism of inflammasomes and the research progress on the roles of inflammasomes in the host defense against Mtb infection.

Key words: tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, inflammasome, activation

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