Macrophage Metabolism and Immune Responses

Macrophages are key components of the immune response to infectious organisms, with a dual role eliminating infectious agents by phagocytosis while mediating defensive and inflammatory pathways. The importance of the metabolic status of these immune cells on their response has been overlooked for decades. Recent advances in metagenomics and high-throughput metabolic profiling has partially unveiled the role of metabolism in macrophage responses. New evidence suggests that the metabolic status might be instrumental for the modulation of the macrophage response to the ever-changing environment that these cells face in vivo. A role of metabolism in reactive oxygen species production in response to pathogens has been long known. The transition between anti and pro-inflammatory scenarios seems to be at least partially mediated by the macrophage metabolic reprogramming from fatty acid oxidation to glycolysis. Moreover, recent studies have also shown metabolic plasticity during long-term responses to vaccine formulations of individual pathogen-associated molecular patterns. The capacity of macrophages to be trained, an emerging concept describing the “learning” capacity of innate immune cells, seems to be also underpinned by metabolic switches.

This Research Topic aims to shed light on our current understanding of the role of metabolism in macrophage biology focusing in the immune response to infectious agents. We welcome the submission of Original Research articles, Reviews and Mini-Reviews, which cover, but are not limited to, the following topics:

1. Role of metabolism in macrophage plasticity.
2. Metabolism and innate immune training.
3. Comparative metabolism in macrophage lineages.
4. Mitochondria biology in macrophages and response to infection.