凋亡、坏死样凋亡和焦亡是不同的程序性细胞死亡方式，是天然免疫抵抗病原体侵染的重要机制。被感染细胞通过凋亡/坏死样凋亡/焦亡使病原体失去复制场所，并分泌或释放细胞内容物调控获得性免疫。三种死亡方式分泌/释放物的不同会导致不同的免疫响应。病原体通过多种策略抑制宿主细胞死亡以促进感染，机体则通过多种细胞死亡方式并存及不同细胞死亡方式间相互替代来实现对病原体的有效防御，因而机体病理过程中往往都是几种死亡方式的混合，很难清晰地阐述某一细胞死亡方式的具体生物学效应。人为地使凋亡、坏死样凋亡和焦亡过程中的核心功能蛋白多聚化可在体内外特异性诱导细胞凋亡、坏死样凋亡和焦亡，为研究这三种细胞死亡的具体生物学功能提供了研究系统。本项目以此系统为基础，深入研究凋亡/坏死样凋亡/焦亡细胞对获得性免疫中树突状细胞成熟分化，抗原递呈，T细胞增殖活化及中和抗体产生等过程的调控作用以及对病原体感染的病理进程的影响。

Apoptosis, necroptosis and pyroptosis are different types of programmed cell death and participate in innate immunity. The death of infected cells leads to the loss of pathogen replicating niche, and the secretion or release of intracellular substances during these processes also regulate adaptive immunity. Different intracellular substances secreted or released by apoptotic, necroptotic and pyroptotic cells could stimulate different immune responses. To promote their infection, pathogens have been evolved to suppress certain type of cell death. On the other hand, the parallel existence of various cell death pathways and the substitution among them in host organisms do protect the host from infection efficiently. Since different cell death types coexist in many pathological processes, it is difficult to study the specific function of each death type, but the specific function of each cell death type is the foundation for the understanding of the role of cell death in vitro and in vivo. Chemically-induced oligomerization of the core protein of apoptotic, necroptotic and pyroptotic pathways could specifically result in cell death of corresponding types, which allows us to study the specific effect of these three types of cell death. Based on this promising system, we would comprehensively investigate the role of apoptotic, necroptotic and pyroptotic cells to adaptive immune response processes, such as dendritic cell maturation, antigen presentation, T cell proliferation and activation, neutralizing antibody production, and their effects on the pathological process of pathogen infection.