Identification of Potential Pathway Mediation Targets in Toll-like Receptor Signaling
Figure 2
The input–output (I/O) relationships of the TLR network at the ligand-receptor-output level.
There were a total of 49 ligands (see Table S3 for complete list), 14 receptors, and 6 outputs. Because the ligands are already well characterized with respect to their receptor specificity, it is unnecessary to carry out the input–output analysis at the level of the external ligand. Rather, the inputs can simply be considered to be signals from the receptors—this reduces the number of inputs from forty-nine to a mere fourteen. NF-kappa-B, CRE/AP-1, and ROS production were all highly redundant targets as almost all of the receptor inputs activated these outputs. IRF3 and IRF7 were much less redundant and were only activated in the case of a small subset of receptor inputs.