ArticleJCI insight2021
SARS-CoV-2-associated ssRNAs activate inflammation and immunity via TLR7/8.
Article in JCI insight, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 104 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
104 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 143 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mucosal immune response in biology, disease prevention and treatment.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2025Pooled it
- Tissue factor in COVID-19-associated coagulopathy.Thrombosis research · 2022Pooled it
- Comparative innate immune responses across major RNA and DNA viral infections: Mechanisms, immunopathology, and therapeutic perspectives.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Review
- Viral subversion of B-cell tolerance: mechanisms linking infection to autoimmunity.EMBO reports · 2026Review
- Predicting Capsid Protein Binding Sites in Single-Stranded RNA Viruses Using Machine Learning from Local Geometric Features.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The cell with many faces: lung macrophage plasticity and function in response to environmental and pathogenic insults.Physiological reviews · 2026Review
- Defective RNA Polymerase III sensing of mitochondrial DNA in pulmonary epithelial cells impairs type I IFN immunity to SARS-CoV-2.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- The emerging role of TLR7-mediated signaling in respiratory viral infections and autoimmune diseases.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2026Review
- The Post-COVID syndrome caused by excessive inflammation: pathogenesis, potential targets and therapeutic agents.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Comparative progress on the mechanisms of airway mucosal injury induced by different pathogens: SARS-CoV-2, influenza A virus, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Association of visceral fat and plasmacytoid dendritic cell-derived interferon alpha with SARS-CoV-2 infection.PloS one · 2026Article
- Article
- Passivation-Engineered Zinc Peroxide Nanoparticles as Th1-Biased Adjuvant for Antitumor Immunity.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2025Article
- Article
- Involvement of nucleic acid-sensing toll-like receptors in human diseases and their controlling mechanisms.Journal of biomedical science · 2025Review
- Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7)-mediated antiviral response protects mice from lethal SARS-CoV-2 infection.Journal of virology · 2025Article
- Cytosolic nucleic acid sensing as driver of critical illness: mechanisms and advances in therapy.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2025Review
- Microglia dysfunction, neurovascular inflammation and focal neuropathologies are linked to IL-1- and IL-6-related systemic inflammation in COVID-19.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- Innate immune sensors and regulators at the blood brain barrier: focus on toll-like receptors and inflammasomes as mediators of neuro-immune crosstalk and inflammation.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2025Review
- Article
44 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The inflammatory and IFN pathways of innate immunity play a key role in the resistance and pathogenesis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Innate sensors and SARS-CoV-2-associated molecular patterns (SAMPs) remain to be completely defined. Here, we identified single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) fragments from the SARS-CoV-2 genome as direct activators of endosomal TLR7/8 and MyD88 pathway. The same sequences induced human DC activation in terms of phenotype and function, such as IFN and cytokine production and Th1 polarization. A bioinformatic scan of the viral genome identified several hundreds of fragments potentially activating TLR7/8, suggesting that products of virus endosomal processing potently activate the IFN and inflammatory responses downstream of these receptors. In vivo, SAMPs induced MyD88-dependent lung inflammation characterized by accumulation of proinflammatory and cytotoxic mediators and immune cell infiltration, as well as splenic DC phenotypical maturation. These results identified TLR7/8 as a crucial cellular sensor of ssRNAs encoded by SARS-CoV-2 involved in host resistance and the disease pathogenesis of COVID-19.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.