PTX cruiser: driving autoimmunity via TLR4.

Although the cause of autoimmune diseases is unknown, it has long been speculated that an infectious agent might have a role in their initiation and progression. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS), has been used to study factors in disease pathogenesis. A recent study shows that pertussis toxin, which is used as an adjuvant in EAE, uses Toll-like receptor 4 signaling to mediate its disease-inducing effect.