Regulators, Processes, and Intricacies of the Innate Immune System with a Focus on the NEMO Complex

Abstract

Insight into immune system regulation is critical to understanding the homeostasis of the immune system, diagnosis of various autoimmune diseases, and cancer prevention measures in the body. The immune system is incredibly complex, from the organ to tissue to cell to molecular level. The innate immune system is contained within each somatic cell and can react to pathogen and damage-associated molecular patterns via pattern recognition receptors. These receptors initiate innate immune pathways that lead to inflammation. Understanding the mechanisms and regulators of the innate immune system and methods by which researchers map innate pathways provides a broader and more holistic context for the immune system's role in many diseases and disorders. To that end, this paper aims to record and analyze multiple proteins and mechanisms of the innate immune system, the role of the leucine rich repeat structure in the innate immune system, structural/functional elements of proteins that contribute to immune regulation of the NEMO (NF-kappa-B essential modulator), standard methodologies for testing signal pathways, and limitations/possible new methods for immune testing.