Severe acute injuries, such as sepsis or trauma, often result in intensive care admissions to provide supportive therapies for failing organs. The acute systemic host response, known as systemic inflammation, affects coagulation, immunity, and cellular metabolism. The last aspect becomes essential to explain the phases observed on immune phenotype moving form hyper to downregulation of immune response. Such time dependent immune phenotype has been shown to largely depend on cellular metabolic shifts from anabolism to catabolism. These changes involve glucose, lipid, and protein metabolism, which drive and regulate immune cell functions.

This special issue will highlight the major metabolic changes induced by inflammation with their cellular immune function reprogramming, the underlying molecular mechanisms, and key therapeutic strategies, including the repurposing of drugs to modulate these metabolic changes and, consequently, immune phenotypes.

Keywords: Acute inflammation, cellular immune function, metabolic pathways modifications, therapeutic consequences