Overexpressed Toll-Like Receptor 2 and the Influence on the Severity of Acute Ischemic Stroke

Brain insult caused by cerebral ischemia/reperfusion is a complex pathophysiological process in which inflammatory reaction is thought to play a crucial part. Toll-like receptors are a sort of transmembrane proteins that can initiate inflammatory reactions upon identifying either endogenous stress or changes in the innate immune system's molecular patterns that are damage-associated or even exogenous pathogen-associated molecular patterns. TLR2, amongst all other Toll-like receptors, is recognized to have a more vital role in the pathologic progress of brain insult attributed to ischemia/reperfusion. The current study aimed to address the impact of TLR2 overexpression on the severity of acute ischemic stroke. A case-control study was piloted on two groups of participants; the first group (cases) was 95 patients suffering from acute ischemic stroke, while the second one (controls) was 50 volunteers free of disease. Matching controls to patients was done according to age (within five years) and gender. The study extended from the beginning of February to the end of August 2020. Participants in both groups were collected from Merjan Medical city in Babylon Governorate. Values of Toll-like receptor 5 were calculated with the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique. Statistically, a significant difference was found between the patients and controls concerning the values of TLR2 (P-value=0.008). Other measured parameters, which are age, gender, and history of hypertension and diabetes, showed no significant differences between the study groups. Overexpressed TLR2possesses a positive impact on increasing the severity of acute ischemic stroke.