The Role of the Toll-Like Receptors in Neuropathology

Abstract

This chapter discusses the role of the toll-like receptors (TLRs) in neuropathology. Mammalian toll-like receptors were first discovered a little over 15 years ago in 1994. Nomura and his colleagues believed that their receptor was responsible for mammalian development because of its structural similarity to the developmental toll receptor in Drosophila. It wasn't until 1998 that the purpose of the newly discovered TLRs was determined, where it was shown that a constituitively active form of a TLR activated components of the innate immune system. However, the ligand for this receptor remained unknown until positional cloning showed that lack of a response to LPS was because of a mutation in ..