Membrane Trafficking Components and Mechanisms in Bacterial, Viral or Fungal Infections
A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 October 2025 | Viewed by 59
Special Issue Editor
Interests: membrane trafficking; neuronal death and regeneration; SIRT1 and aging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
During pathogenic infections, an infecting agent interacts with host cells both extracellularly and intracellularly. Specialized immune cells react to infectious agents and/or their molecular components to elicit immune responses. Furthermore, most cells have the capacity and machinery in place to mount innate immune responses. Both adaptive and innate immunity, from antigen presentation to Toll-like receptor functions, involve intracellular membrane trafficking systems. While some of these activate unique components and pathways in specialized cells, much of the cellular trafficking machinery conserved in all eukaryotic cells would likely be mobilized.
Many pathogens also invade the cell and replicate using resources derived from the latter. All viruses of clinical importance are obligate pathogens of such nature, entering cells through co-opted surface receptors. Furthermore, the intracellular membrane of virally infected cells is often rearranged by viral products, with normal membrane compartments and trafficking components (such as Rabs, coat proteins, and SNAREs) as well as processes subverted and modified for viral replication and virion production. Importantly, certain bacteria and fungi could also invade cells and establish intracellular sanctuaries that could serve immune evasive functions that are critical for long-term, chronic phases of infections.
In this Special Issue of Cells on “Membrane Trafficking Components and Mechanisms in Bacterial, Viral or Fungal Infections", we invite contributions in the form of original research articles and critical reviews on all, but not limited to, the processes described above. The focus shall be on the infection of mammalian cells by viral, prokaryotic, and eukaryotic pathogens. Very good manuscripts on plant cell infections and phage infection of bacteria will also be considered, subject to the editor’s discretion on their quality.
Dr. Bor Luen Tang
Guest Editor
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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- bacterial intracellular infections
- bacterial intracellular sanctuaries
- viral infection
- viral hijacking of host trafficking machinery
- membrane trafficking
- Rab
- secretory pathway
- endocytic pathway
- viral replication
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