TLR2 Promotes Th2/Th17 Responses via TLR4 and TLR7/8 by Abrogating the Type I IFN Amplification Loop

MH Wenink, KCM Santegoets, JCA Broen, L van Bon, S Abdollahi-Roodsaz, C Popa, R Huijbens, T Remijn, Erik Lubberts, PLCM van Riel, WB van den Berg, TRDJ Radstake

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

55 Citations (Scopus)
27 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

TLR2 plays an important role in the removal of Gram-positive bacteria; contrastingly, it also appears to have important protective effects against unrestrained inflammation and subsequent organ injury during infection and autoimmunity. We hypothesized that TLR2 tunes the phenotype of dendritic cells (DCs) activated through other TLRs, thereby fulfilling a crucial role in the modulation of the immune response. TLR2 potently inhibited TLR4- and TLR7/8-induced cytokine production by human DCs. The inhibitory effect of TLR2 on the release of TNF-alpha but not of IL-12p70 was mediated by PI3K. TLR2 inhibits the production of IL-12p70 by dampening the type 1 IFN amplification loop. When DCs were triggered with the potent synergistic combination of LPS (TLR4) and R848 (TLR7/8) in conjunction with a TLR2 ligand, a clear shift to more Th2- and Th17-prone responses in the naive and memory T cell subpopulations was observed. This shift in T cell responses was inherent to the inability of TLR2-stimulated DCs to produce IL-12p70 and was dependent on the production of IL-1 and IL-6. The Journal of Immunology, 2009,183: 6960-6970.
Original languageUndefined/Unknown
Pages (from-to)6960-6970
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Immunology
Volume183
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009

Research programs

  • EMC MUSC-01-31-01

Cite this