REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Inflammation
Role of Toll-like Receptors in Pulmonary Immunity: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Implications
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, China
- 280th Group Army Hospital of People's Liberation Army, Weifang, China
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Toll-like receptors (TLRs) belong to the family of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), playing critical roles in linking innate with adaptive immunity by recognizing pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). TLRs and TLR signaling pathways serve as not only the first line of pulmonary defense against pathogens infection but crucial factors in maintaining pulmonary immune homeostasis. However, aberrant activation of TLR signaling leads to inflammation and immune dysregulations, contributing to various pulmonary diseases, including inflammation, infection, fibrosis, and malignancy. This review summarizes the updated roles of TLRs and TLR signaling in lung development and the establishment and regulation of pulmonary region-specific immunity. We further elucidate the involvement of TLRs and TLR signaling in the onset and progression of lung diseases, such as infections, fibrosis, malignancies, and immune disorders. It would provide updated insights into the exploration of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies targeting TLRs and TLR signaling in pulmonary diseases.
Keywords: Toll-like receptor, Pulmonary immunity, pattern recognition receptor, Infections, Homeostasis
Received: 13 Aug 2025; Accepted: 28 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Qu, Guo, Chunjuan, Guan, Cheng, Wang and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Pingping Wang, dyf813@sina.cn
Donghua Xu, xudh@sdsmu.edu.cn
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