OBJECTIVES Toll-like receptors (TLRs) detect microbial infections and they can directly induce innate host defense responses. TLR 2 has been shown to be primarily involved in the recognition of peptidoglycans and lipoteichoic acid of gram positive bacteria. TLR 4 recognizes lipopolysaccharides and lipoteichoic acids from both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Both mutations lead a reduc...

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a common chronic lung disease and major risk factor for severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection among preterm infants. The Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is involved in oxidative injury responses in the lungs. Two non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms in the TLR4 gene have been associated with RSV infection in children. However, it is unclear...

Introduction: Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gut. It is assumed that a defective interaction between the bacterial flora of the gut and the innate immune system plays a key role in the pathogenesis of the disease. This may lead to specific histological lesions. The epithelioid granuloma is particularly interesting in this regard as it is also observed in several bacte...

The present study aimed to investigate whether genetic polymorphisms in the Toll-like receptor (TLR)-4 and Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR)-associated protein (TIRAP) genes, and/or their expression levels, influence the susceptibility of a patient to sepsis. A total of 106 patients with sepsis were divided into two groups on the basis of their acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (AP...

Immune responses contribute to the success of radiotherapy of solid tumors; however, the mechanism of triggering CD8(+) T-cell responses is poorly understood. Antigen cross-presentation from tumor cells by dendritic cells (DC) is a likely dominant mechanism to achieve CD8(+) T-cell stimulation. We established a cross-presentation model in which DCs present a naturally expressed oncofetal tumor ...

The lipid A of LPS activates TLR4 through an interaction with myeloid differentiation protein-2 (MD-2) and the degree of lipid A acylation affects TLR4 responsiveness. Two TLR4 single nucleotide polymorphisms (Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile) have been associated with LPS hyporesponsiveness. We hypothesized that the combination of hypoacylation and these single nucleotide polymorphisms would exhibit a ...

BACKGROUND Dysfunctional innate responses of alveolar macrophages to nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis and Streptococcus pneumoniae contribute to morbidity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Our earlier studies discovered impaired COPD alveolar macrophage responses to Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands of nontypeable H. influenzae and provide rationale for fu...

Taís Silveira Assmann1,2, Natália Emerim Lemos1,2, Letícia de Almeida Brondani1,2, Rodrigo Carlessi1,2, Carmen Maldonado-Bernal3,4, Miguel Cruz3,4, Luis Henrique Canani1,2 and Daisy Crispim1,2* 1Endocrine Division, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre. Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil 2Postgraduate Program in Medical Sciences: Endocrinology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Por...

Tuberculosis (TB) still remains the leading cause of mortality due to bacterial pathogen. The only currently available vaccine against TB, Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is at best credited with a 50% overall protective efficacy. Skin testing with purified protein derivative (PPD) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the method of detecting BCG-induced cell mediated immunity, in vivo. In the previ...