Toll-like receptors (TLRs), molecules that recognize molecular components of microbes, have taken center stage in immunologists' view of how innate immunity is triggered. A study in people genetically deficient for MyD88, a molecule central to TLR signaling in mice, should now spur a reexamination of simple views of TLR biology, as Rino Rappuoli and his colleagues explain. Delphine J. Lee and Robert L. Modlin examine how TLR9 recognition of self DNA, instead of microbe DNA, may prompt autoimmunity.
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The authors are full-time employees of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics.
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Valiante, N., De Gregorio, E. & Rappuoli, R. Toll-free immunity?. Nat Med 14, 1318–1319 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1208-1318
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1208-1318
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