title: Myeloid differentiation factor 88-independent Toll-like receptor pathway: Sustaining inflammation or promoting tolerance?
abstract: Toll-like receptor signaling represents a principal molecular pathway for host innate immunity. Mechanistically, it can be segregated into two distinct cascades: the myeloid differentiation factor 88-dependent and myeloid differentiation factor 88-independent (or Toll receptor-associated activator of interferon-mediated) cascades. Myeloid differentiation factor 88-dependent signaling is common to all the Toll-like receptors, except Toll-like receptor 3, which exclusively utilizes the myeloid differentiation factor 88-independent pathway. Based on recent evidences, a possible role for myeloid differentiation factor 88-independent pathway not only in sustaining inflammatory responses during Gram-negative infection but also in protective responses like endotoxin tolerance is proposed in this review. We hypothesize that the delayed kinetics of activation of the myeloid differentiation factor 88-independent pathway might be functionally aimed at tuning-down inflammatory reactions through promotion of cellular tolerization and possibly protecting hosts from inflammation-induced injury. Future studies will be needed to experimentally validate this idea and the crucial relevance of the myeloid differentiation factor 88-independent pathway.
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics Institute (A*STAR), Matrix, Biopolis Street, Singapore 138671, Singapore. subhra_biswas@immunol.a-star.edu.sg
authors.forename: Subhra K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.forename: Vinay
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tergaonkar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance / Q000276:immunology*; D007249:Inflammation / Q000378:metabolism*; D053594:Myeloid Differentiation Factor 88 / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D053594:Myeloid Differentiation Factor 88; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors