Toll-Like Receptor 4 Signaling Pathway as a Potential Targets for Stroke-Induced Inflammation

Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) belongs to a large family of pattern recognition receptors that play a key role in innate immunity and inflammatory response. Increasing evidence has shown that TLR4 signaling pathway plays an essential role in mediating the immune response and central nervous system (CNS) repair and development. Brain inflammation and innate immunity has been implicated as a secondary injury mechanism following stroke, exacerbating neural damage to impede recovery. After stroke, a series of signaling pathways are triggered by dying cells or other factors in both the local innate immune cells in brain and other immune cells from bloodstream, contributing to the brain inflammatory response. In this review, we discuss the TLR4 signaling in association with recent findings concerning the involvement of TLR4 signaling pathway in stroke-induced inflammation and brain injury, and then study the key mechanisms associated with TLR4 signaling pathway in the above processes, suggesting the potential for therapeutic intervention by targeting TLR4 signaling pathway.