Brucella infection and Toll-like receptors

Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2024 Mar 12:14:1342684. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1342684. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Brucella consists of gram-negative bacteria that have the ability to invade and replicate in professional and non-professional phagocytes, and its prolonged persistence in the host leads to brucellosis, a serious zoonosis. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are the best-known sensors of microorganisms implicated in the regulation of innate and adaptive immunity. In particular, TLRs are transmembrane proteins with a typical structure of an extracellular leucine-rich repeat (LRR) region and an intracellular Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domain. In this review, we discuss Brucella infection and the aspects of host immune responses induced by pathogens. Furthermore, we summarize the roles of TLRs in Brucella infection, with substantial emphasis on the molecular insights into its mechanisms of action.

Keywords: Brucella; Toll-like receptor; innate immunity; pathogen-associated molecular pattern; vaccine.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Brucella*
  • Brucellosis*
  • Humans
  • Immunity, Innate
  • Toll-Like Receptors

Substances

  • Toll-Like Receptors

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was support in part by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82260092, 82170296 and 82060084) and Major Science and Technology Projects of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (No. 2021ZD0006).