Toll like receptors and chemokine receptors: 2 interconnected arms of the innate immune response.

当我们被病毒、细菌或寄生虫感染时，我们会产生一种叫做免疫反应的特殊反应。在这个过程的开始，我们必须能够做的第一件事是登记我们已经被感染的事实。这是通过一种叫做Toll样受体的特殊分子来实现的，这种分子可以感知感染因子并开始启动免疫反应。我们有许多Toll样受体专门识别不同类型的入侵生物。Toll样受体启动免疫反应的一种方式是诱导一种叫做趋化因子的不同类型分子的合成，这种分子对帮助白细胞到达感染部位至关重要。白细胞在帮助开始破坏入侵生物的过程中很重要，这导致感染部位周围出现炎症。最终，我们会对入侵的生物产生全面的免疫反应，如果一切顺利，这将确保它从我们体内清除。我们对Toll样受体和趋化因子家族如何相互作用以协调我们对感染的反应感兴趣。了解这种相互作用对我们理解我们对入侵生物的反应至关重要，并将提供宝贵的数据，帮助我们改善对这些病原体的反应。

When we are infected by a virus, or a bacteria, or a parasite, we mount specialised responses called immune responses. At the start of this process, the first thing we have to be able to do is to register the fact that we have been infected. This is achieved using specialised molecules called Toll Like Receptors, which sense the infecting agents and start to initiate an immune response. We have a number of Toll Like Receptors which are specialised in recognising different types of invading organisms. One of the ways in which Toll Like Receptors initiate the immune response is by inducing the synthesis of a different class of molecules called chemokines which are essential in helping to get white blood cells to the infected sites. The white blood cells are important in helping to start the process of destruction of the invading organisms and this results in inflammation developing around the infected sites. Eventually we mount a full immune response to the invading organism and, all being well, this will ensure its removal from our body. We are interested in how the Toll Like Receptor and Chemokine families interact to coordinate our response to infection. Understanding this interaction is central to our understanding of our response to invading organisms and will provide invaluable data that may help us to improve our responses to such agents.