Expression of Toll-like receptors and their association with cytokine responses in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of children with acute rotavirus diarrhoea

To understand virus and host interactions and host responses to rotavirus infection in children, we analysed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) the expression of mRNA for five Toll-like receptors (TLRs) (TLR2, TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR8) and four T helper (Th)1 and Th2 cytokines [interleukin (IL)-2, IL-12, interferon (IFN)-gamma and IL-4) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of children with acute rotavirus diarrhoea. We observed significantly higher expression of genes encoding TLR2, TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR8 in PBMC of 41% (31/75) patients within 3 days of illness onset than those in healthy children. After 3 days of illness onset, only TLR3 and TLR8 mRNA expressions were still significantly (P < 0.05) increased in 59% (44/75) children with diarrhoea. We also observed significantly (P < 0.05) elevated expression of IL-12p40 and IFN-gamma in PBMC of patients during the entire period of illness and the first 3 days of illness, respectively. We further demonstrated a weak but significant association between elevated levels of gene expression of four TLRs (TLR2, TLR3, TLR4 and TLR8) and IFN-gamma. Our results suggest that multiple TLRs may modulate the immune response in the acute phase of rotavirus infection and play a role in the activation of IFN-gamma.