Happy 2021! @MBVanElzakker and I are excited to share our new article published in #Immunometabolism: “Pathogens Hijack Host Cell Metabolism: Intracellular Infection as a Driver of the Warburg Effect in Cancer and Other Chronic Inflammatory Conditions”:

2/ In the paper, we detail molecular mechanisms by which #viral, #bacterial, and #parasite intracellular pathogens can induce, or contribute to, a Warburg-like #metabolism in infected host cells in order to meet their own replication and nutritional needs.
3/ We also discuss how host defense towards #infection may impact cellular metabolic changes (including how #mitochondria can participate in the innate immune response towards infection)
4/ We then provide examples of how many of these same intracellular pathogens have been identified in #tumors, atherosclerotic lesions, #granuloma, and other tissues containing cells with a Warburg or altered metabolism.
5/ Last, we examine further trends associated with infection and host cell metabolism, including how #pathogen-driven hijacking of host cell lipid metabolism can support viral, bacterial, and parasite survival and replication.
6/ Overall we argue that, at least in a subset of patients w/ #cancer, #atherosclerosis, #sarcoidosis + related conditions, metabolic changes and inflammatory cascades central to the disease process are driven by intracellular pathogens
7/ We also discuss how pathogen-driven hijacking of cellular metabolism may contribute to #MECFS. ME/CFS is an extremely debilitating #neuroinflammatory condition that often begins with an infection (w/ #herpesvirus or enterovirus involvement already documented in some cases)
8/ A better understanding + acceptance of the trend could result in novel #diagnostics and treatments for patients w/ such conditions (w/ discussion of how a #ketogenic diet might impede pathogen-hijacking of host metabolism)
9/ So many cool people helped make the paper a reality. Special thanks to @lenapernas @Palmer_IMet_lab @dbkell, Dr. Wonder Drake, and @krisfobes for helping us with feedback and on earlier drafts of the manuscript.

More from Science

@mugecevik is an excellent scientist and a responsible professional. She likely read the paper more carefully than most. She grasped some of its strengths and weaknesses that are not apparent from a cursory glance. Below, I will mention a few points some may have missed.
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The paper does NOT evaluate the effect of school closures. Instead it conflates all ‘educational settings' into a single category, which includes universities.
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The paper primarily evaluates data from March and April 2020. The article is not particularly clear about this limitation, but the information can be found in the hefty supplementary material.
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The authors applied four different regression methods (some fancier than others) to the same data. The outcomes of the different regression models are correlated (enough to reach statistical significance), but they vary a lot. (heat map on the right below).
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The effect of individual interventions is extremely difficult to disentangle as the authors stress themselves. There is a very large number of interventions considered and the model was run on 49 countries and 26 US States (and not >200 countries).
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