Immune Response and Inflammation

When the body encounters a bacterium or virus, it does not wait for a tailored immune response to develop — instead, a rapid-reaction system called innate immunity detects molecular signatures shared across broad classes of pathogens and triggers immediate defensive action. Central to this process are receptor families such as Toll-like receptors and NOD-like receptors, which recognize conserved microbial structures and set off signaling cascades that produce inflammation and coordinate the slower, more specific adaptive immune response through cytokine communication. Researchers are working to understand why these pathways sometimes misfire — producing damaging chronic inflammation or, in phenomena like endotoxin hyporesponsiveness, failing to respond adequately after repeated exposure — and how innate antiviral responses can be harnessed or modulated for therapeutic benefit. Clarifying the precise molecular logic of pathogen recognition and the feedback mechanisms that govern immune intensity remains an active priority, with implications for infectious disease, autoimmunity, and vaccine design.

Works

124,586

Total citations

3,419,724

Keywords

Toll-like ReceptorsPattern Recognition ReceptorsInflammationInnate Antiviral ResponsesCytokine-Mediated LinkPathogen Recognition