REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Immunological Tolerance and Regulation
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1594988
This article is part of the Research TopicMetabolite-induced Metabolic Reprogramming in the Immune SystemView all 3 articles
Macrophages in chronic infections: regulation and remodeling
Provisionally accepted
- Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China
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Macrophages, as a critical component of innate immune cells, exhibit significant plasticity.When confronted with danger signals such as pathogens or microenvironmental alterations, macrophages can differentiate into various phenotypes and functions to safeguard the host.However, numerous pathogens manipulate macrophage metabolic pathways to modify their functional expression, facilitating immune evasion and ensuring long-term survival during chronic infections. Therefore, the role of macrophage metabolic reprogramming in chronic infections has received growing attention. This review elucidates the primary metabolic pathways of macrophages and their association with polarization. It examines how pathogens modulate macrophage functional expression through metabolic reprogramming to sustain chronic infection. Additionally, it delineates how macrophage metabolic reprogramming in chronic infections reconfigures the microenvironment through interaction with other immune cells and its contribution to trained immunity.
Keywords: Macrophages, polarization, metabolic reprogramming, Chronic infection, Immune Regulation
Received: 17 Mar 2025; Accepted: 25 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cui, Wang, Jiao, Tian, Liu and Luo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Hui Liu, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China
Bo Luo, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China
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