The Effects of Viral Infection on Lymphocyte Metabolism: A New Perspective on Disease Characterization

Over the past decade, metabolic dysfunction has been re-examined as an area of interest in a variety of atopic, malignant, and autoimmune conditions. The unique immune and, specifically, lymphocyte metabolic dysfunctions in disease are starting to be more clearly classified. Exploring the lymphocyte metabolic profiles of these diseases in the current literature, we characterize these diseases into two distinct metabolic groups. The influence of viral infection on immune metabolic dysfunction is explored. During an acute or chronic infection, there is a varied rapid shift in nutrients available to immune cells. This article explores the effect of these changes in nutrient availability and the resulting outcome on immune cell function. From this, a new hypothesis is proposed that these two groups of conditions, characterized by two unique immune profiles, are caused by either acute or chronic viral infections. The physiology behind this is explored, which proposes a new step between a healthy immune system and that of disease, in a unique working model.