Bacterial interference with canonical NFkB signalling

The human body is constantly challenged by a variety of commensal and pathogenic microorganisms that trigger the immune system. Central in the first line of defence is the patternrecognition receptor (PRR)-induced stimulation of the NFkB pathway, leading to NFkB activation. The subsequent production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and/or antimicrobial peptides results in recruitment of professional phagocytes and bacterial clearance. To overcome this, bacteria have developed mechanisms for targeted interference in every single step in the PRR–NFkB pathway to dampen host inflammatory responses. This review aims to briefly overview the PRR–NFkB pathway in relation to the immune response and give examples of the diverse bacterial evasion mechanisms including changes in the bacterial surface, decoy production and injection of effector molecules. Targeted regulation of inflammatory responses is needed and bacterial molecules developed for immune evasion could provide future anti-inflammatory agents.