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Toll-Like Receptors and Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Book chapter   Peer reviewed

Toll-Like Receptors and Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Kelly Mulfaul, Maedbh Rhatigan and Sarah Doyle
Retinal Degenerative Diseases: Mechanisms and Experimental Therapy, pp.19-28
Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, v. 1074, Springer Nature
2018
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-75402-4_3
PMID: 29721923

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Abstract

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of central vision loss in the over 50s worldwide. Activation of the immune system has been implicated in disease progression, but while polymorphisms in genes associated with the immune system have been identified as risk factors for disease, the underlying pathways and mechanisms involved in disease progression remain incompletely characterised. Typically inflammatory responses are mediated by microbial infection; however, in chronic conditions, a form of 'sterile' inflammation exists whereby immune responses occur in areas of the body, in the absence of microbes; 'sterile' inflammation is likely to be central to AMD. In this case the innate immune response is triggered when alarm signals released by stressed cells or damaged tissue are identified by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a family of membrane-spanning PRRs for which host-derived ligands have been identified; these include heat shock proteins, extracellular matrix breakdown products, mRNA from necrotic cells and modified lipids. Here we review the evidence for TLR involvement in the pathogenesis of AMD.
Cell Biology Ophthalmology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Medicine, Research & Experimental Research & Experimental Medicine Science & Technology

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