title: The immediate protective response to microbial challenge.
abstract: The innate immune system detects infection and tissue injury through different families of pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs), such as Toll-like receptors. Most PRR-mediated responses initiate elaborate processes of signaling, transcription, translation, and secretion of effector mediators, which together require time to achieve. Therefore, PRR-mediated processes are not active in the early phases of infection. These considerations raise the question of how the host limits microbial replication and invasion during this critical period. Here, we examine the crucial defense mechanisms, such as antimicrobial peptides or extracellular traps, typically activated within minutes of the initial infection phase, which we term the "immediate protective response". Deficiencies in different components of the immediate protective response are often associated with severe and recurrent infectious diseases in humans, highlighting their physiologic importance.
authors: Networked Biomedical Research Center for Hepatic and Digestive Diseases (CIBERehd), Hospital General de Alicante, Alicante, Spain; Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors: José M
authors: JM
authors: González-Navajas
authors: Mary P
authors: MP
authors: Corr
authors: Eyal
authors: E
authors: Raz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000502:physiology*; D007239:Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D051193:Toll-Like Receptors
keywords: Antimicrobial response; Infection; Innate immunity