Apoptosis, necroptosis and pyroptosis represent three major regulated cell death modalities. Apoptosis features cell shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation and cytoplasm-blebbing. Necroptosis and pyroptosis exhibit osmotic imbalances in the cell accompanied by early membrane ruptures, which morphologically resembles necrosis. Importantly, these two lytic cell death forms facilitate the release of damage associated molecular patterns into the extracellular space leading to inflammatory response. Whereas, during apoptosis, the membrane integrity is preserved and the apoptotic cell is removed by neighbouring cells ensuring the avoidance of immune-stimulation. Viruses comprise a versatile group of intracellular pathogens, which elicit various strategies to infect and to propagate. Viruses are recognized by a myriad of pathogen recognition receptors in the human cells, which consequently lead to activation of the immune system and in certain circumstances cell-autonomous cell death. Importantly, the long-standing view that a cell death inducing capacity of a virus is equal to its pathogenic potential seems to be only partially valid. The altruistic cell death of an infected cell may serve the whole organism by ultimately curbing the way of virus manufacturing. In fact, several viruses express “anti-cell death” proteins to avoid this viral-defence mechanism. Conversely, some viruses hijack cell death pathways to selectively destroy cell populations in order to compromise the immune system of the host. This review discusses the pros and cons of virus induced cell death from the perspective of the host cells and attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of the complex network of cell death signalling in virus infection.

细胞凋亡、坏死性凋亡和细胞焦亡代表三种主要的受调节细胞死亡方式。细胞凋亡的特征是细胞皱缩、核碎裂和细胞质起泡。坏死性凋亡和细胞焦亡表现出细胞内渗透失衡并伴有早期膜破裂，其形态学类似于坏死。重要的是，这两种裂解性细胞死亡形式有助于将损伤相关的分子模式释放到细胞外空间，从而导致炎症反应。然而，在细胞凋亡过程中，膜的完整性得以保留，并且凋亡细胞被邻近细胞移除，从而确保避免免疫刺激。病毒包含一组多才多艺的细胞内病原体，它们会引发各种感染和繁殖策略。病毒被人体细胞中的无数病原体识别受体识别，从而导致免疫系统激活，并在某些情况下导致细胞自主细胞死亡。重要的是，长期以来认为病毒的细胞死亡诱导能力等于其致病潜力的观点似乎只是部分有效。受感染细胞的利他细胞死亡可能通过最终抑制病毒制造的方式为整个生物体服务。事实上，一些病毒表达“抗细胞死亡”蛋白来避免这种病毒防御机制。相反，一些病毒劫持细胞死亡途径以选择性地破坏细胞群以损害宿主的免疫系统。