There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are type I transmembrane proteins involved in innate immunity
by recognizing microbial conserved structures. Recent studies have shown that TLR3
recognizes dsRNA, a viral product, whereas TLR9 recognizes unmethylated CpG motifs
frequently found in the genome of bacteria and viruses, but not vertebrates. TLR7
recognizes small synthetic immune modifiers including imiquimod, R-848, loxoribine,
and bropirimine, all of which are already applied or promising for clinical use against
viral infections and cancers. Plasmacytoid dendritic cells express TLR7 and TLR9,
and respond to TLR7 and TLR9 ligands by producing a large amount of interferon (IFN-alpha).
These results indicate that TLR3, TLR7 and TLR9 may play an important role in detecting
and combating viral infections.