Latest Toll-like receptor Stories

When it comes to plants' innate immunity, like many of the dances of life, it takes two to tango. A receptor molecule in the plant pairs up with a specific molecule on the invading bacteria and, presto, the immune system swings into action to defend against the invasion of the disease-causing microbe.Unwrapping some of the mystery from how plants and bacteria communicate in this dance of immunity, scientists at the University of California, Davis, have identified the bacterial signaling...

Researchers have new evidence to explain how saturated fatty acids, which soar in those who are obese, can lead the immune system to respond in ways that add up to chronic, low-grade inflammation. The new results could lead to treatments designed to curb that inflammatory state, and the insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes that come with it.One key, according to the report in the November Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, is an immune receptor (called Toll-like receptor 4 or Tlr4)...

Chronic inflammation, which is at the root of multiple diseases, links periodontal disease to increased incidence of cardiovascular disease.The activation of Toll-Like Receptors, which are essential components of the immune response to certain pathogens, promotes chronic inflammation in periodontal disease. Of these receptors TLR4 is one of a family of receptors that provides critical links between immune stimulants produced by microorganisms and the host response. It stands out because it...

A U.S.-led international team of scientists found certain lung cells can be used in the human immune response for sensing airborne allergens. Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., and Ghent University in Belgium said foreign substances, called antigens, are inhaled daily, however the lungs have mechanisms that usually prevent people from unwanted allergic immune responses to the materials. But sometimes immune responses are generated,...

Critical mechanism enables blood-borne immune cells to sense West Nile virus and to neutralize and clear infection in the brainIn animal studies, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Yale University have identified molecular interactions that govern the immune system's ability to defend the brain against West Nile virus, offering the possibility that drug therapies could be developed to improve success in treating West Nile and other viral forms of encephalitis, a brain inflammation...

Research led by Johns Hopkins Children's Center scientists has figured out why a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine used in 1966 to inoculate children against the infection instead caused severe respiratory disease and effectively stopped efforts to make a better one. The findings, published online on Dec. 14 in Nature Medicine, could restart work on effective killed-virus vaccines not only for RSV but other respiratory viruses, researchers say. The new findings also debunk a popular theory...

Dutch researcher Joost Wiersinga from AMC Medical Centre in Amsterdam has unravelled a genetic defence mechanism against the lethal bacteria Burkholderia pseudomallei. The research is the next step towards a vaccine against this bacterium suitable for bioweapons.Humans have an innate defence system against deadly bacteria. However, how the step from gene to anti-bacterial effect occurs in the body is not yet known. To date, B. Pseudomallei, a bacterium suitable for bioweapons, had managed to...

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDRA) today announced that it will present preclinical data from studies on its autoimmune disease program at the 4th Annual Meeting of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society being held at the Harvard Medical School Conference Center in Boston, October 15-18, 2008. The Company's presentations describe studies of novel compounds targeted to Toll-like Receptors (TLRs), including the evaluation of TLR antagonist compounds in preclinical models of autoimmune...

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 3, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. (AMEX:HEB) today announced that the Company will present at the BioPharm America Conference to be held on September 9 to 10, 2008 at the Grand Hyatt, Atlanta, GA. The oral presentation, "TLRs: New Targets for Broad-Based Pharmaceutical Development," is scheduled for Wednesday, September 10 at 3:30PM. NDA Status: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Treatment Currently, the only TLR3 ligand in a...

Austrian scientists identify the common mechanism underlying acute respiratory disease syndrome ARDSThe Spanish flu outbreak of 1918 killed between 30 and 50 million people. In the infected patients, the ultimate cause of death was acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This fatal condition is a massive reaction of the body during which the lung becomes severely damaged. ARDS can be induced by various bacterial and viral infections, but also by chemical agents. These could be toxic gases...