TB: the Yin and Yang of lipid mediators
- Authors
- Tobin, D.M., and Ramakrishnan, L.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-130722-9
- Date
- 2013
- Source
- Current opinion in pharmacology 13(4): 641-5 (Review)
- Registered Authors
- Ramakrishnan, Lalita, Tobin, David
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Epoxide Hydrolases/immunology*
- Humans
- Inflammation Mediators/immunology*
- Lipoxins/immunology*
- Tuberculosis/immunology*
- PubMed
- 23849093 Full text @ Curr. Opin. Pharmacol.
There is a growing appreciation of the diverse roles that lipid mediators play in modulating inflammatory responses during infection. In the case of tuberculosis, virulent mycobacteria induce host production of anti-inflammatory mediators, including lipoxins, which limit the host inflammatory response and lead to necrotic cell death of infected macrophages. Recent work using the zebrafish model suggests that, while excess anti-inflammatory lipoxins are host detrimental during mycobacterial infections, excess pro-inflammatory lipids also drive host susceptibility. The balance of these inflammatory states is influenced by common human genetic variation in Asia. Fuller understanding of the mechanisms of eicosanoid-mediated inflammatory imbalance during tuberculosis infection has important implications for the development of adjunctive therapies.