The current book is focussed on the Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which are the first pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) discovered in humans. For example, TLR4 was first recognized in humans in 1997 as a PRR recognizing the Gram-negative bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). This discovery revolutionized the field of innate immunity and filled the long-standing gap in the pathogen recognition by the immune system. Now, it is well established that humans have 10 (TLR1-TLR10) and mice have 12 (TLR1-TLR13) functional TLRs, excluding TLR10 that is present as a defective pseudogene. TLRs are present as both membrane-bound extracellular (TLR1, TLR2, TLR4, TLR5, TLR6, and TLR10) and intracellular (TLR3, TLR7, TLR8, and TLR9) PRRs in humans, which identify different pathogen or microbe-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs or MAMPs) and death or damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) released by the host cells. A lot of development in the TLR biology has occurred in last 24 years since there first discovery in humans.<p>The book is intended to describe their role in the host defence, human reproduction, non-infectious sterile inflammatory conditions, including brain immunity and cerebrovascular diseases, signaling mechanisms, adaptive immunity, and their targeting for drug development.</p>
