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Cellina et al. Neuroimmunol Neuroinflammation 2018;5:22 Neuroimmunology
DOI: 10.20517/2347-8659.2018.15 and Neuroinflammation

Commentary Open Access

Commentary on interactions between neurotropic
pathogens, neuroinflammatory pathways, and

autophagic neural cell death

Michaela Cellina, Marcello Orsi

Radiology Department, ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco, Milan 20121, Italy.
Correspondence to: Dr. Michaela Cellina, Radiology Department, ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco, Piazza Principessa Clotilde,
Milan 20121, Italy. E-mail: michaela.cellina@asst-fbf-sacco.it
How to cite this article: Cellina M, Orsi M. Commentary on interactions between neurotropic pathogens, neuroinflammatory
pathways, and autophagic neural cell death. Neuroimmunol Neuroinflammation 2018;5:22.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2347-8659.2018.15
Received: 30 Mar 2018 First Decision: 2 May 2018 Revised: 7 May 2018 Accepted: 7 May 2018 Published: 5 Jun 2018

Science Editor: Athanassios P. Kyritsis Copy Editor: Guang-Zhe Zhu Production Editor: Cai-Hong Wang

Autophagy is a fundamental regulatory cellular mechanism, which enables cells to survive after a checked
clearance of damaged organelles and proteins and a recycle of necessary molecules like amino acids and
fatty acids to maintain homeostasis . There are a lot of factors able to influence autophagy in the states of
[1]
health and disease. In the excellent review by Sahu et al. , the role of autophagy, its mechanisms, and its
[2]
protective role against the attack of pathogens are well described. However, even more controversial aspects
of autophagy are addressed: first some pathogens, such as herpes simplex viruses, coxsackievirus, listeria
monocytogenes have developed strategies to circumvent autophagy-dependent activation of host immune
response, then some bacteria have the ability to modify the gene transcriptional level of the autophagic
process, both in terms of downgrading of autophagy-related genes, as in the case of Yersinia enterocolitica
and Francisella tularensis , and in terms of up regulation of autophagy-related genes: this mechanism favors
[3]
a prolonged inflammation at the infection site and results in further injury to surrounding healthy tissues,
causing brain matter degeneration.

The proposed hypothesis that prolonged infections of the central nervous system (CNS) by neurotropic
pathogens, if associated with underlying conditions, might play a role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative
diseases and the connections between autophagy dysregulation and neurodegeneration are subjects of great
interest in literature.

Recent studies have demonstrated an intrinsic connection between selective autophagy impairment and
neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) , Parkinson’s disease (PD) [8-10] , Huntington’s
[4-7]
© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
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