Cite by DOI: 10.1084/jem.20100682 of 9

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a family of pat-tern recognition receptors that have evolved to detect invading microorganisms and link recog-nition to induction of antimicrobial defense. In mammals, TLR9, TLR7, and TLR3 recognize nonmethylated CpG motifs in DNA, single-stranded RNA, and double-stranded RNA, respectively. These ligands are conceptually dis-tinct among TLRs because they exist within the host as well as within potential pathogens. Thus, although nucleic acid recognition enables detection of viral infection, this strategy can also result in self-recognition. Indeed, recognition of self–nucleic acids by TLR7 and TLR9 can contribute to the pathology of autoimmun