Enhancement of infectious disease vaccines through TLR9-dependent recognition of CpG DNA

The adaptive immune system-with its remarkable ability to generate antigen-specific antibodies and T lymphocytes against pathogens never before "seen" by an organism is one of the marvels. of evolution., However to generate these responses, the adaptive immune system requires activation by the, innate immune system. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are perhaps the best-understood family of innate immune receptors for detecting infections and stimulating adaptive immune responses.. TLR9 appears to have evolved to recognize, infections by a, subtle structural difference between eukaryotic and prokaryoticl/viral DNA; only the former frequently methylates CpG dinucleotides. Used as vaccine adjuvants, synthetic oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) ligands for TLR9-CpG-ODN-greatly enhance the speed and strength of the immune responses to vaccination,