The role of Toll-like receptors in immune disorders

Abstract

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an important role in innate immunity. Individual TLRs recognise microbial components that are conserved among pathogens. Such recognition initiates necessary inflammatory immune responses and induces subsequent activation of adaptive immunity. Studies in people with polymorphisms in genes encoding TLR signalling can elucidate the relationship between TLRs and human diseases, such as infectious diseases, atherosclerosis and immunodeficiency. Indeed, accumulating data in respect to TLR signalling suggest that TLRs are closely related with the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. This review looks at the role of TLRs in various immune disorders, and discusses the pathogenesis of diseases.

Keywords::

• autoimmune disease
• polymorphism
• Toll-like receptor

Acknowledgements

The authors thank M Hashimoto for secretarial assistance. This work was supported by grants from Special Coordination Funds, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the Japan Research Foundation for Clinical Pharmacology.