Structure-based drug design approach to target toll-like receptor signaling pathways for disease treatment

Abstract

Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling pathways are the first line of defence against many microbial organisms. The question of how TLRs recognize endogenous ligands remains controversial. Several studies have shown that TLRs are implicated in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore, in structure-based drug design, TLRs are now viewed as potential therapeutic targets in the treatment of autoimmune diseases. This review shows how proteins, specifically TLRs, are used as therapeutic targets to design inhibitors (drugs) using the structure-based drug design approach for disease treatment.

Keywords: Structure-based drug design, Toll-like receptors, Autoimmune diseases, Endogenous ligands, X-ray crystallography, Homology modeling