Complement and Toll-like receptors: key regulators of adaptive immune responses

Abstract

The innate immune system provides sophisticated defense mechanisms to protect complex macroorganisms from the attack of microorganisms. Among those, the complement system and Toll-like receptors are of paramount importance to discriminate between infectious non-self and non-infectious self and to provide critical danger signals instructing adaptive immune responses. Here, we will discuss recent advances in our understanding of the mechanisms underlying complement and TLR-mediated regulation of adaptive immunity. We will focus on the regulation of T cell immunity and discuss recent findings on the cross-talk between complement receptor and TLR signaling pathways. Such cross-talk is likely to affect the outcome of infections with intracellular pathogens, as well as the initiation and maintenance of aberrant immune responses leading to autoimmunity and atopy.