Abstract
The 2011 Nobel Prize inMedicine or Physiology was awarded to Jules Hoffmann, Bruce Beutler and Ralph Steinman for their contributions in the area of Innate Immunity. This review introduces the readers to innate immunity and links the studies of the awardees to this area of research. The cells and mechanisms involved in the innate immune response are reviewed with a special emphasis on the discovery of the Toll receptors in Drosophila and the Toll-like receptors in mammals. The importance of the innate response during inflammatory conditions is discussed and examples of genes related to innate immunity that cause disease are also highlighted. Finally, the roles of innate immunity in modulating adaptive immune response, especially with respect to dendritic cells, are discussed. Further studies in this area are likely to enhance our understanding of the immune response and may lead to drugs to ameliorate excessive inflammatory responses.
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Mukta and Chetana are research scholars and Rajkumar is a research fellow in Dipankar Nandi’s laboratory. Mani worked in Nandi’s laboratory as a research fellow and is, currently, a research scholar in the University of Cologne, Germany. Dipankar Nandi is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
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Deobagkar-Lele, M., Bhaskarla, C., Dhanaraju, R. et al. Innate immunity and the 2011 Nobel Prize. Reson 17, 974–995 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-012-0111-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-012-0111-y