Researchers from the University of Bonn are using an innovative method to watch immune receptors go about their business. Immune cells are capable of detecting infections just like a sniffer dog, using special sensors known as Toll-like receptors, or TLRs for short. But what signals activate TLRs, and what is the relationship between the scale and nature of this activation and the substance being detected? In a recent study, researchers from the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) used an innovative method to answer these questions.
The approach that they took might help to speed up the search for drugs to combat infectious diseases, cancer, diabetes or dementia. Their findings have been published in the journal "Nature Communications." TLRs are found in great numbers on the surface of many of our cells, particularly those in the mucous membranes and those of our immune system.
They work like the olfactory receptors in our nose, being activated when they encounter a specific chemical signal. The alarm that they trigger starts a series of reactions inside the cells. When scavenger cells "sniff out" a bacterium, for instance, they initiate a process known as phagocytosis by engulfing and digesting it, while other immune cells release special messengers that call for reinforcements and thus provoke inflammation.
TLRs activated by danger signals There are several groups of TLRs, each of which responds to different "smells." "These are molecules that have cry.