Regulation of Inflammatory Signaling in Health and Disease

Yibo Si, Yunlu Zhang, Zijuan Chen, Ruixue Zhou, Yihua Zhang, Doudou Hao, Dapeng Yan

Inflammation is usually the defensive reaction of the immune system to the invasion of pathogen and the exogenous objects. The activation of inflammation helps our body to eliminate pathogenic microbe, virus, and parasite harming our health, while under many circumstances inflammation is the direct cause of the pathological damage in tissues and dysfunction of organs. The posttranslational modification (PTM) of the inflammatory pathways, such as TLR pathways, RLR pathways, NLR pathway, intracellular DNA sensors, intracellular RNA sensors, and inflammasomes, is crucial in the regulation of these signaling trails. Ubiquitination, phosphorylation, polyubiquitination, methylation, and acetylation are the main forms of the PTM, and they respectively play different roles in signaling regulation. The effects of the PTM range from the production of pro-inflammatory factors and the interaction between adaptors and receptors to cell translocation in response to the infectious or other dangerous factors. In this chapter, we will have an overview of the different ways of the posttranslational modifications in different inflammatory signaling pathways and their essential roles in regulation of inflammation.