Abstract
Toll-like receptors are typically expressed in immune cells to regulate innate immunity. We found that functional Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) was expressed in C-fiber primary sensory neurons and was important for inducing itch (pruritus), but was not necessary for eliciting mechanical, thermal, inflammatory and neuropathic pain in mice. Our results indicate that TLR7 mediates itching and is a potential therapeutic target for anti-itch treatment in skin disease conditions.
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Acknowledgements
The work was supported by US National Institutes of Health grants R01-DE17794, R01-NS54362 and R01-NS67686 to R.-R.J.
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T.L. conducted behavioral tests for itch and acute pain and participated in experimental design and manuscript preparation. Z.-Z.X. performed immunohistochemistry and behavioral tests of pain. C.-K.P. conducted single-cell PCR and electrophysiology. T.B. performed in situ hybridization. R.-R.J. supervised the project, designed experiments and wrote the manuscript.
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Liu, T., Xu, ZZ., Park, CK. et al. Toll-like receptor 7 mediates pruritus. Nat Neurosci 13, 1460–1462 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2683
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2683
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