Infection and atherosclerosis: TLR-dependent pathways

Abstract

AbstractAtherosclerotic vascular disease (ASVD) is a chronic process, with a progressive course over many years, but it can cause acute clinical events, including acute coronary syndromes (ACS), myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. In addition to a series of typical risk factors for atherosclerosis, like hyperlipidemia, hypertension, smoking and obesity, emerging evidence suggests that atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease, suggesting that chronic infection plays an important role in the development of atherosclerosis. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are the most characteristic members of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), which play an important role in innate immune mechanism. TLRs play different roles in different stages of infection of atherosclerosis-related pathogens such asChlamydia pneumoniae(C. pneumoniae),periodontal pathogens includingPorphyromonas gingivalis(P. gingivalis), Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori) andhuman immunodeficiency virus(HIV). Overall, activation of TLR2 and 4 seems to have a profound impact on infection-related atherosclerosis. This article reviews the role of TLRs in the process of atherosclerosis afterC. pneumoniaeand other infections and the current status of treatment, with a view to providing a new direction and potential therapeutic targets for the study of ASVD.