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- Title
Pattern recognition receptors in microbial keratitis.
- Authors
Taube, M-A; del Mar Cendra, M; Elsahn, A; Christodoulides, M; Hossain, P
- Abstract
Microbial keratitis is a significant cause of global visual impairment and blindness. Corneal infection can be caused by a wide variety of pathogens, each of which exhibits a range of mechanisms by which the immune system is activated. The complexity of the immune response to corneal infection is only now beginning to be elucidated. Crucial to the cornea's defences are the pattern-recognition receptors: Toll-like and Nod-like receptors and the subsequent activation of inflammatory pathways. These inflammatory pathways include the inflammasome and can lead to significant tissue destruction and corneal damage, with the potential for resultant blindness. Understanding the immune mechanisms behind this tissue destruction may enable improved identification of therapeutic targets to aid development of more specific therapies for reducing corneal damage in infectious keratitis. This review summarises current knowledge of pattern-recognition receptors and their downstream pathways in response to the major keratitis-causing organisms and alludes to potential therapeutic approaches that could alleviate corneal blindness.
- Subjects
TREATMENT of keratitis; CORNEA diseases; VISION disorders; BLINDNESS; PATTERN recognition systems; IMMUNE system
- Publication
Eye, 2015, Vol 29, Issue 11, p1399
- ISSN
0950-222X
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1038/eye.2015.118