Immune Response and Inflammation

When the body encounters a bacterium or virus, it does not wait for a tailored immune response to develop — it fires back immediately through a set of ancient detection proteins called pattern recognition receptors, including Toll-like receptors and NOD-like receptors, which identify molecular signatures shared across classes of pathogens. These receptors trigger inflammation and antiviral programs that buy time for the slower, more precise adaptive immune system to mobilize, and they do so through cascades of signaling molecules called cytokines that coordinate activity across cell types and tissues. Researchers are working to understand why the same receptor-driven machinery that protects against infection can, in excess or in the wrong context, drive chronic inflammatory disease, septic shock, or runaway cytokine responses. A central open question is how the system calibrates sensitivity — explaining phenomena like endotoxin hyporesponsiveness, where repeated exposure to bacterial toxins dulls the inflammatory reaction — and how those calibration mechanisms might be targeted therapeutically.

Works

123,326

Total citations

3,388,336

Keywords

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