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Synergistic activation of Toll-like receptor 8 by two RNA degradation products

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 22, pages 99–101 (2015)Cite this article

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Recognition of nucleic acids is a key strategy of the innate immune system to detect infectious organisms and tissue damage. Toll-like receptor (TLR) 8 was long assumed to be a receptor for single-stranded (ss) RNA. Unexpected findings now suggest that TLR8 recognizes RNA degradation products rather than ssRNA and that synergistic binding of two uridine-containing agonists at distinct sites of the receptor leads to activation of the innate immune response.

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Figure 1: Structural basis of binding of uridine nucleoside and UG RNA dinucleotide to TLR8.
Figure 2: Synergistic activation of TLR8 by two degradation products of single-stranded RNA.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft–funded Excellence Cluster ImmunoSensation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Matthias Geyer, Karin Pelka and Eicke Latz are at the Institute of Innate Immunity, University Clinics Bonn, University of Bonn, Germany.,

    Matthias Geyer, Karin Pelka & Eicke Latz

  2. Matthias Geyer is also at the Center of Advanced European Studies and Research (CAESAR), Bonn, Germany.,

    Matthias Geyer

  3. Eicke Latz is also at the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany, and the Centre of Molecular Inflammation Research, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.,

    Eicke Latz

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  1. Matthias Geyer
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  2. Karin Pelka
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Correspondence to Eicke Latz.

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Geyer, M., Pelka, K. & Latz, E. Synergistic activation of Toll-like receptor 8 by two RNA degradation products. Nat Struct Mol Biol 22, 99–101 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2967

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