title: Plasmacytoid dendritic cells in antiviral immunity and autoimmunity.
abstract: Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) represent a unique and crucial immune cell population capable of producing large amounts of type I interferons (IFNs) in response to viral infection. The function of pDCs as the professional type I IFN-producing cells is linked to their selective expression of Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) and TLR9, which sense viral nucleic acids within the endosomal compartments. Type I IFNs produced by pDCs not only directly inhibit viral replication but also play an essential role in linking the innate and adaptive immune system. The aberrant activation of pDCs by self nucleic acids through TLR signaling and the ongoing production of type I IFNs do occur in some autoimmune diseases. Therefore, pDC may serve as an attractive target for therapeutic manipulations of the immune system to treat viral infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases.
authors.affiliation: Center for Infection and Immunity, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Qiumei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Yong-Jun
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D015551:Autoimmunity / Q000276:immunology*; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007370:Interferon Type I / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000276:immunology; D051199:Toll-Like Receptor 7 / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D051217:Toll-Like Receptor 9 / Q000502:physiology; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D007370:Interferon Type I; D051199:Toll-Like Receptor 7; D051217:Toll-Like Receptor 9