Roles of Mitochondrial Respiratory Complexes during Infection

Beyond oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), mitochondria have also immune functions against infection, such as the regulation of cytokine production, the generation of metabolites with antimicrobial proprieties and the regulation of inflammasome-dependent cell death, which seem in turn to be regulated by the metabolic status of the organelle. Although OXPHOS is one of the main metabolic programs altered during infection, the mechanisms by which pathogens impact the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) complexes to alter OXPHOS are not well understood. Similarly, how changes on ETC components affect infection is only starting to be characterized. Herein we summarize and discuss the existing data about the regulation of ETC complexes and super-complexes during infection, in order to shed some light on the mechanisms underlying the regulation of the mitochondrial OXPHOS machinery when intracellular pathogens infect eukaryotic host cells.