Detection and clearance of invading pathogens requires a coordinated response of the adaptive and innate immune system. Host cell, however, also features different mechanisms that restrict pathogen replication in a cell-intrinsic manner, collectively referred to as cell-autonomous immunity. In immune cells, the ability to unleash those mechanisms strongly depends on the activation state of the cell, which is controlled by cytokines or the detection of pathogen-associated molecular patterns by pattern-recognition receptors. The interferon (IFN) class of cytokines is one of the strongest inducers of antimicrobial effector mechanisms and acts against viral, bacterial and parasitic intracellular pathogens. This has been linked to the upregulation of several hundreds of IFN-stimulated genes, among them the so-called IFN-inducible GTPases. Two subfamilies of IFN-inducible GTPases, the immunity-related GTPases (IRGs) and the guanylate-binding proteins (GBPs), have gained attention due to their exceptional ability to specifically target intracellular vacuolar pathogens and restrict their replication by destroying their vacuolar compartment. Their repertoire has recently been expanded to the regulation of inflammasome complexes, which are cytosolic multi-protein complexes that control an inflammatory cell death called pyroptosis and the release of cytokines like interleukin-1β and interleukin-18. Here we discuss recent advances in understanding the function, the targeting and regulation of IRG and GBP proteins during microbial infections.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.