The role of host autophagy machinery in controlling Toxoplasma infection

ABSTRACT

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasitic protist that infects a wide range of warm-blooded vertebrates. Although this parasite can cause serious complications, infections are often asymptomatic, allowing T. gondii to persist in its host and possibly enhancing the chances of its transmission. T. gondii has thus evolved multiple mechanisms of host manipulation to establish chronic infection. This persistence involves a balance between host immunity and parasite evasion of this immune response. This review highlights recent investigations that have demonstrated the important role played by the autophagy machinery in this balance, both in parasite control by the host, and in host exploitation by the parasite.

KEYWORDS:

• Toxoplasma gondii
• toxoplasmosis
• autophagy
• non-canonical autophagy
• LC3-associated phagocytosis (LAP)

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Nicolas Blanchard for his critical reading of the manuscript and for offering some helpful suggestions. I also thank Jonathan Howard for his insightful comments on an earlier version of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

Support from the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (Inserm), the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (Equipe EQ20170336725) and the Labex Parafrap (ANR-11-LABX-0024) is acknowledged.