Book

Description

The susceptibility to infections may be driven by genetic, epigenetic, im-munological, and/or environmental factors. In order to comprehend how the genetic factors may be associated, genetic epidemiology was created. Its two primary methodological techniques are linkage and association studies. The main goal of association studies is to determine the role that various mutations of the same gene may play in the manifestation of a specific disease. They involve observing the allele frequencies in individuals from a population with the target disease and comparing them with healthy control groups belonging to the same population. In this sense, Toll-like Receptors (TLRs), such as the TLR4, are genes encoding transmembrane receptors of the same name, which induce a pro- or anti-inflammatory response according to their expression as the host's first line of defense against pathogens, such as infectious ones.