Impelling TLR9: Road to perspective vaccine for visceral leishmaniasis

Recent trends in immunotherapy have shown enthusiasm in exploring Toll-like receptors (TLRs) for designing therapeutical interventions against numerous deadly diseases. TLRs are subfamily of pathogen recognition receptor playing pivotal role in innate immunity. TLR9 is one such critical member belonging to intracellular TLRs which is associated with mounting inflammatory response in response to intruders. Explorative studies have shown CG motifs from the prokaryotic origin as activators of TLR9 culminating in the expression of NFκB. These CG rich short stranded DNA sequences have been further delineated into different classes based on their structural specificities and immunomodulatory properties. Here we discuss the progress of how activation of TLR9 can be utilized with novel parasitic CpG islands to function as potential adjuvants specifically against protozoan parasitic diseases primarily visceral leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania donovani.