Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Therefore, a better understanding of their pathomechanisms and the subsequent implementation of optimal prophylactic and therapeutic strategies are of utmost importance. A growing body of evidence states that low-grade inflammation is a common feature for most of the cardiovascular diseases in which the contributing factors a...

Immunological defense depends on the ability of the innate immune system to recognize invading microbes as foreign and thus eliminate them. The Toll-like receptors (TLRs) help detect foreign invaders by sensing various pathogen-associated molecules, including microbial RNA and DNA. At present, it is unclear whether and how the immune system distinguishes between microbial and self nucleic acids...

Background FMF is a systemic auto-inflammatory disorder, characterized by recurrent episodes of fever and serosal inflammation. The MEF gene, which is associated with FMF, encodes for the protein pyrin. FMF associated mutations, interrupt with pyrin normal function, leading to activation of the innate immune system and overexpression of IL-1b, and consequently to a systemic inflammatory respons...

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are evolutionarily conserved pathogen sensors that constitute the first line of defense in the human immune system. Herpesviruses are prevalent throughout the world and cause significant disease in the human population. Sensing of herpesviruses via TLRs has only been documented in the last 10 years and our understanding of the relationship between these sentinels of t...

Toll-like receptors (TLRs), part of the innate immune system that recognises molecular signatures, are important in the recognition of pathogenic components. However, when specific cellular contexts develop in which TLRs are inappropriately activated by self-components, this may lead to sterile inflammation and result in the occurrence of autoimmunity. This review analyses the available data re...

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the tumor microenvironment plays an important role in the progression of cancer. The microenvironment may promote tumor cell survival and proliferation or, alternatively may induce tumor cell apoptosis. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are transmembrane proteins, expressed on immune cells and epithelial cells, that recognize exogenous and endogenous macromole...

The generation of cell-mediated immunity against many infectious pathogens involves the production of interleukin-12 (IL-12), a key signal of the innate immune system. Yet, for many pathogens, the molecules that induce IL-12 production by macrophages and the mechanisms by which they do so remain undefined. Here it is shown that microbial lipoproteins are potent stimulators of IL-12 production b...

Huntington's disease (HD), an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive striatal and cortical atrophy, has been strongly linked with neuroinflammation. Toll-like receptors, a family of innate immune receptors, are a major pathway for neuroinflammation with pleiotropic effects on neuronal plasticity and neurodevelopment. We assessed whether deficiency for TLRs 2,...

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are pattern-recognition receptors that are important in innate immune responses to bacterial infection. The purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence of TLRs genetic variations in the bacteremic patients in Korea. A total of 154 patients with bacteremia and 179 healthy volunteers were included. The Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile allele of the TLR4 gene and Arg753Gl...

Since first being described in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have proven to be of great interest to immunologists and investigators interested in the molecular basis to inflammation. They recognize pathogen-derived factors and also products of inflamed tissue, and trigger signaling pathways that lead to activation of transcription factors such as nuclear fact...