Synthetic Toll-Like Receptors for Control of Innate Immunity With Far-Red Light

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are single-pass transmembrane proteins that initiate innate immune responses through recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns, including lipopolysaccharide, flagellin, and microbial nucleic acids. In mammals, TLRs are expressed in both immune and non-immune cells, where they activate cytokine expression through the myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MyD88) signaling pathway and subsequently engage the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) or interferon regulatory factor 3 / interferon regulatory factor 7 (IRF3/IRF7) pathways. To enable optical control of TLR function, the extracellular domains of several homodimeric TLRs, including TLR3, TLR4, and TLR5, are replaced with the photosensory core module of the bacterial phytochrome DrBphP. The resulting chimeric receptors activate the NF-κB and IRF3/IRF7 pathways in mammalian cells in a far-red-light-dependent manner. The MyD88 pathway is further reprogrammed to induce caspase activation instead of cytokine production, thereby creating a synthetic system that links TLR stimulation to caspase signaling. This strategy establishes a versatile optogenetic platform for far-red-light control of innate immune and cell death pathways.