Sivakumar Prasanth Kumar

Abstract Innate immunity provides the critical first line of defense against infection and sterile triggers. Cell death is a key component of the innate immune response to clear pathogens, but excessive or aberrant cell death can induce inflammation, cytokine storm, and pathology, making it a central molecular mechanism in inflammatory diseases.

This article is part of the PLOS Biology 20th Anniversary Collection. Innate immunity provides the first line of defense against disease. To carry out this critical function, the innate immune system is made up of sensor molecules called pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that detect pathogen-associated and damage-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs and DAMPs) to initiate signaling pathways that activate a broader immune response and regulated cell death (RCD).