title: Toll-like receptors and innate immunity.
abstract: Toll-like receptors have a crucial role in the detection of microbial infection in mammals and insects. In mammals, these receptors have evolved to recognize conserved products unique to microbial metabolism. This specificity allows the Toll proteins to detect the presence of infection and to induce activation of inflammatory and antimicrobial innate immune responses. Recognition of microbial products by Toll-like receptors expressed on dendritic cells triggers functional maturation of dendritic cells and leads to initiation of antigen-specific adaptive immune responses.
authors.affiliation: Section of Immunobiology, Yale University School Medicine, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA. ruslan@yale.edu
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Medzhitov
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D004330:Drosophila / Q000276:immunology; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000276:immunology; D008024:Ligands; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000276:immunology*; D018448:Models, Immunological; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000276:immunology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051198:Toll-Like Receptor 5; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D008024:Ligands; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; C068721:Tl protein, Drosophila; D051198:Toll-Like Receptor 5; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors; C495341:tehao protein, Drosophila