Abstract:Apoptosis may occurs under pathological conditions and is sometimes accompanied by necrosis. In particular, bacterial infections play an important role in triggering apoptosis. Pathogenic bacteria can trigger apoptosis by activating some factor or suppress inhibitors of apoptosis, then change the host cell signaling pathways and induce cell apoptosis. In recent years, researchers have found that cell apoptosis is mainly related to pathogenic bacteria of virulence factor. Here, we reviewed the mechanism of host cell apoptosis induced by pathogen virulence factors, which aims at revealing the integrated effects of bacterial virulence factor triggering host apoptosis, and the same kind of bacteria can trigger to cell apoptosis through different mechanisms. Finally, with the help of current research progress and our own studies, we discussed and prospected pathogen virulence factor induced host cell apoptosis mechanism and application prospect, and discovered the pathogen virulence factor is of great potential in cancer and some bacterial resistant diseases.