1. Amgen Institute, Ontario Cancer Institute and Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, 620 University Avenue, Suite 706, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C1, Canada
2. Departments of Medical Biophysics and Immunology, University of Toronto, 610 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2M9, Canada
3. Tularik Incorporation, 2 Corporate Drive, South San Francisco, California 94080, USA
4. These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence to: Wen-Chen Yeh¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to W.-C.Y. (e-mail: wyeh@amgen.com).

Abstract

Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns, and members of the pro-inflammatory interleukin-1 receptor (IL-1R) family, share homologies in their cytoplasmic domains called Toll/IL-1R/plant R gene homology (TIR) domains^{1, 2, 3}. Intracellular signalling mechanisms mediated by TIRs are similar⁴, with MyD88 (refs 5–8) and TRAF6 (refs 9, 10) having critical roles. Signal transduction between MyD88 and TRAF6 is known to involve the serine-threonine kinase IL-1 receptor-associated kinase 1 (IRAK-1)¹¹ and two homologous proteins, IRAK-2 (ref. 12) and IRAK-M¹³. However, the physiological functions of the IRAK molecules remain unclear, and gene-targeting studies have shown that IRAK-1 is only partially required for IL-1R and TLR signalling^{14, 15}. Here we show by gene-targeting that IRAK-4, an IRAK molecule closely related to the Drosophila Pelle protein¹⁶, is indispensable for the responses of animals and cultured cells to IL-1 and ligands that stimulate various TLRs. IRAK-4-deficient animals are completely resistant to a lethal dose of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In addition, animals lacking IRAK-4 are severely impaired in their responses to viral and bacterial challenges. Our results indicate that IRAK-4 has an essential role in innate immunity.