The innate immune system provides many ways to quickly resist infection. The two best-studied defenses in dendritic cells (DCs) are the production of protective cytokines-like interleukin (IL)-12 and type I interferons-and the activation and expansion of innate lymphocytes. IL-12 and type I interferons influence distinct steps in the adaptive immune response of lymphocytes, including the polari...

The extent of the innate immune response is regulated by many positively and negatively acting signaling proteins. This allows for proper activation of innate immunity to fight infection while ensuring that the response is limited to prevent unwanted complications. Thus mutations in innate immune regulators can lead to immune dysfunction or to inflammatory diseases such as arthritis or atherosc...

For a long time now, kidney transplant rejection has been considered the consequence of either cellular or antibody-mediated reaction as a part of adaptive immunity response. The role of innate immunity, on the other hand, had been unclear for many years and was thought to be only ancillary. There is now consistent evidence that innate immune response is a condition necessary to activate the ma...

The first year of life represents a time of marked susceptibility to infections; this is particularly true for regions in sub-Saharan Africa. As innate immunity directs the adaptive immune response, the observed increased risk for infection as well as a suboptimal response to vaccination in early life may be due to less effective innate immune function. In this study, we followed a longitudinal...

Innate immunity is the first line of defense against infectious microorganisms. The innate immune system relies on germ line-encoded pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) to recognize pathogen-derived substances (Janeway 1989). Activation of the innate immune system through these receptors leads to the expression of a vast array of antimicrobial effector molecules that attack microorganisms at m...

The nuclear receptor superfamily consists of the steroid and non-steroid hormone receptors and the orphan nuclear receptors. Small heterodimer partner (SHP) is an orphan family nuclear receptor that plays an essential role in the regulation of glucose and cholesterol metabolism. Recent studies reported a previously unidentified role for SHP in the regulation of innate immunity and inflammation....

Rotavirus is a primary cause of severe dehydrating gastroenteritis in infants and young children. The virus is sensitive to the antiviral effects triggered by the interferon (IFN)-signaling pathway, an important component of the host cell innate immune response. To counteract these effects, rotavirus encodes a nonstructural protein (NSP1) that induces the degradation of proteins involved in reg...

The interferon inducible oligoadenylate synthetase (OAS)/RNase L pathway is an innate defense against invading viral pathogens that is linked to cell survival [reviewed in 1]. OAS family proteins are pattern recognition receptors that recognize double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), a pathogen-associated molecular pattern. In the presence of dsRNA, which is produced during the replication cycle of a broa...

Recent advance in autoimmunity research reveals that the innate immune system is able to recognize self-targets and initiate inflammatory response in a similar way as with pathogens. This review describes one novel example of this innate autoimmunity, ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Studies of intestinal, skeletal muscle, and heart I/R models showed that reperfusion of ischemic tissues elici...

Treatment of a pathogenic disease process is interpreted as the optimal control of a dynamic system. Evolution of the disease is characterized by a non-linear, fourth-order ordinary differential equation that describes concentrations of pathogens, plasma cells, and antibodies, as well as a numerical indication of patient health. Without control, the dynamic model evidences sub-clinical or clini...