Identification of pathogen receptors on dendritic cells to understand their function and to identify new drug targets

Dendritic cells (DCs) are crucial in the defence against invading pathogens. These professional antigen-presenting cells express a diversity of pattern recognition receptors to recognize pathogens and to induce adaptive immune responses. However, pathogens have also developed several mechanisms to suppress or modulate DC function through specific receptors, thereby ensuring pathogen survival and dissemination. In this chapter, we will discuss techniques to identify and functionally characterize pathogen receptors on DCs and to determine whether DCs elicit protective immune responses or whether pathogens subvert these responses to escape immunity.