Journal: Nature Communications

Article Title: A tissue-intrinsic mechanism sensitizes HIV-1 particles for TLR-triggered innate immune responses

doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-72586-3

Figure Lengend Snippet: a Schematic representation of PRRs and their cognate ligands. PRRs: green, adapter proteins: pink, PAMPs: red, transcription factors: blue. b PRR inhibitor screening. MDMs were challenged with S or DC HIV-1 NL4.3 R5 virions in presence or absence of PRR inhibitors. IL-6 release was measured by ELISA from MDM supernatants. Data is normalized to mock infected condition (gray dotted line). c Measurement of IL-6 release from the supernatants of MDMs challenged with S or DC HIV-1 virions in presence or absence of the indicated inhibitors. d Volcano plot illustrating the differential gene expression between MDMs challenged with DC virus and mock challenged cells for 6 h. The number of down- and upregulated genes are indicated. e Volcano plot as in d. with highlighted gene signatures. Genes induced by TLR2 alone (blue), TLR8 alone (brown), co-regulated (light green) or associated with “Innate Immune Response” genes (red). f Volcano plot illustrating the differential gene expression between MDMs challenged with suspension or collagen primed HIV-1 virus for 6 h. The number of down- and upregulated genes are indicated. g Volcano plot as in f. with highlighted gene signatures. Genes induced by TLR2 alone (blue), TLR8 alone (brown), co-regulated (light green) or associated with Innate Immune Response genes (red). Top deregulated genes belonging to different gene ontology terms are highlighted. h Gene ontology analysis of biological processes repressed or induced in MDMs challenged with collagen primed virions as compared to cells challenged with suspension virus for 6 h. FDR is indicated (only upregulated pathways have a q -value < 0.05). Top deregulated genes for each pathway are highlighted. Results represent the mean ± SD of 3 independent donors. Symbols indicate individual donors ( b , c ) or individual genes ( d–g ). Significance is indicated by p-values, and was calculated by two-tailed paired t-tests or Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test ( b , c ), differential gene expression analysis was performed using DESeq2: genes with adjusted p-value < 0.05 were considered significant ( d–g ), for GSEA analysis, p -values were corrected using Benjamini-Hochberg FDR ( h ). Source data are provided as a file.

Article Snippet: 5 μM of cGAS inhibitor (G140, Invivogen), 8 μM of TLR 1/2 inhibitor (Cu-CPT22, Selleckchem), 49 μM of TLRs 4& 2/6 inhibitor (GIT27, Tocris), 2 μM of TLR4 inhibitor (CLI-095, Invivogen), 100 μM of TLR2 inhibitor (TL2-C29, Invivogen) or 10 μM of TLR8 inhibitor (Cu-CPT9a, Invivogen) were incubated with MDMs 3 h prior to infection.

Techniques: Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay, Infection, Gene Expression, Virus, Suspension, Two Tailed Test

Journal: Nature Communications

Article Title: A tissue-intrinsic mechanism sensitizes HIV-1 particles for TLR-triggered innate immune responses

doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-72586-3

Figure Lengend Snippet: a Representative structure of an HIV-1 Env trimer. Epitopes targeted by different bNAbs or nNAbs as well as sCD4 are highlighted (based upon a prediction of NL4.3 Env trimer structure using AlphaFold 3). b Experimental workflow. HIV-1 NL4.3 R5 Vpr.Int.GFP virions harvested from suspension or collagen cultures were sequentially incubated with primary, epitope-specific anti-gp120 antibodies, then with AF568 coupled secondary antibodies prior to processing for microscopy analysis. c . Representative micrographs of stained virions. Vpr.Int.GFP positive spots (green) can be seen bound by different antibodies or sCD4-PE (red). Scale bar: 0.5 µm. d Spider plot representing the binding frequency of antibody binding to HIV-1 NL4.3 R5 as in (c). e . sTLR2 is retained at the surface of NL4.3 R5 but not NL4.3 ΔEnv virions after collagen priming. One representative Western Blot analysis showing the ratio from HIV-1 NL4.3 virions cultured in S, DC or LC. The TLR2/p24 ratios are indicated below the blots after correction, after subtraction of the TLR2 background signals from the last two lanes. f Quantification of western blot analyses from three independent experiments as in e . g . Representative micrographs. MDMs challenged with HIV1 NL4.3 R5 Vpr.Int.GFP virions after culture in suspension or in DC. Yellow arrows indicate Vpr.Int.GFP/TLR8 colocalization. Scale bar: 5 µm. h Quantification of Virus/TLR8 colocalization from micrographs as in d. Results represent the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. Significance is indicated by p -values, and was calculated by two-tailed paired t-tests ( d , f , h ). Source data are provided as a file.

Article Snippet: 5 μM of cGAS inhibitor (G140, Invivogen), 8 μM of TLR 1/2 inhibitor (Cu-CPT22, Selleckchem), 49 μM of TLRs 4& 2/6 inhibitor (GIT27, Tocris), 2 μM of TLR4 inhibitor (CLI-095, Invivogen), 100 μM of TLR2 inhibitor (TL2-C29, Invivogen) or 10 μM of TLR8 inhibitor (Cu-CPT9a, Invivogen) were incubated with MDMs 3 h prior to infection.

Techniques: Suspension, Incubation, Microscopy, Staining, Binding Assay, Western Blot, Cell Culture, Virus, Two Tailed Test

Journal: Frontiers in Immunology

Article Title: Human neutrophils recognize group B streptococci via formylated peptide receptors and toll-like receptor 8

doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2026.1828994

Figure Lengend Snippet: TLR8 is required for GBS-induced cytokine production. Neutrophils were treated with the TLR8 inhibitor CU-CPT9a (0.75, 1.50 and 3.00μM) or the TLR2 inhibitor TL2-C29 (5, 10 and 25μM) before stimulation with live [MOI of 5, (A, B) ] or heat-killed GBS [25 μg/ml, (C, D) ]. IL-8 (A, C) and TNF-α (B, D) were measured in 24h culture supernatants. Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 10 ng/mL) was included as a positive control. (E) Effect of pretreatment with the TLR8 CU-CPT9a inhibitor (3μM) on the release of reactive oxygen species after stimulation with live GBS (MOI 100). Data are expressed as means ± standard deviations from five independent experiments, each performed in duplicate. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01, as determined by the Mann-Whitney test; ns, not significant.

Article Snippet: The contribution of FPRs and TLRs to IL-8 and ROS production induced by live bacteria was evaluated by pretreating neutrophils for 1 hour at 37 °C in 5% CO 2 with the selective FPR2 antagonist WRW4 (Abcam), the pan-FPR inhibitor Boc-2 (GenScript), the selective TLR8 inhibitor CU-CPT9a (InvivoGen) or the selective TLR2 inhibitor TL2-C29 (InvivoGen) at the indicated concentrations prior to stimulation with heat-killed (HK) or live bacteria.

Techniques: Positive Control, MANN-WHITNEY

Journal: Frontiers in Immunology

Article Title: Human neutrophils recognize group B streptococci via formylated peptide receptors and toll-like receptor 8

doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2026.1828994

Figure Lengend Snippet: Cytokine responses to GBS by nucleic acids. IL-8 (A) and TNF-α (B) responses to stimulation with graded doses of GBS nucleic acids (0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 µg/ml). In experiments involving pretreatment with the TLR8 inhibitor CU-CPT9a (3 μΜ), neutrophils were then stimulated with 10 µg/ml of nucleic acids (RNA or DNA). Data are expressed as means ± standard deviations from three independent experiments, each performed in duplicate. *p < 0.05, as determined by the Mann-Whitney test.

Article Snippet: The contribution of FPRs and TLRs to IL-8 and ROS production induced by live bacteria was evaluated by pretreating neutrophils for 1 hour at 37 °C in 5% CO 2 with the selective FPR2 antagonist WRW4 (Abcam), the pan-FPR inhibitor Boc-2 (GenScript), the selective TLR8 inhibitor CU-CPT9a (InvivoGen) or the selective TLR2 inhibitor TL2-C29 (InvivoGen) at the indicated concentrations prior to stimulation with heat-killed (HK) or live bacteria.

Techniques: MANN-WHITNEY