TLRs and other molecules signaling crosstalk in diseases

Abstract

Inflammatory diseases affect human health and the quality of life, causing heavy medical burdens in our society. Multiple pathogen-related molecular patterns, risk-related molecular patterns, and inflammatory cytokines exist in the inflammatory environment; these molecules activate immune cells and trigger inflammatory responses through pattern recognition receptors and cytokine receptors. Inflammatory molecules can activate immune cells alone or together through signaling crosstalk. For example, macrophages pretreated with interferon γ enhance Toll-like receptor 4 signal-induced gene expression through epigenetic remodeling. However, there are multiple forms of interactions between inflammatory molecules, including synergistic effects and antagonistic effects. At present, the forms of crosstalk between inflammatory molecules and TLRs that participate in immune cell activation and inflammatory disease progression and their detailed mechanisms are not fully discovered yet. In this chapter, we will enumerate the interaction between different immune molecules and TLRs and discuss how the interactions affect the process of inflammatory disease development and progression.