# RNA-triggered innate immunity: friend and foe

## TL;DR

The paper explores how cells distinguish between self and foreign RNA to regulate immune responses, highlighting the role of RNA modifications and their impact on immunity and disease.

## Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of RNA sensing mechanisms and their implications for vaccine development.

## Key findings

- RNA chemical modifications and compartmentalization protect self RNA from immune sensing.
- Self RNA sensing can lead to immune pathologies when disrupted.
- Understanding RNA sensing has advanced the development of vaccines.

## Abstract

Endogenous, or ‘self’, vs. microbial, or ‘non-self’, RNA sensing can tip the scales between immune pathology and effective immunity. Cells are equipped to sense RNA, fundamental to trigger an innate immune response to clear viral infection that should not generate a harmful immune response against endogenous RNA. Multiple chemical modifications in RNA fine-tune its cellular sensing and are exploited by pathogens to evade immunity. Likewise, perturbations triggering self RNA sensing cause immune pathologies. This underscores the clinical need for a better understanding of self RNA recognition. Here, we address nucleic acid sensing in the innate immune response from an RNA-centric view. We discuss how self RNA is shielded from sensing by chemical modifications and subcellular compartmentalization, possible mechanisms and consequences of self-RNA sensing, and how this knowledge has been harnessed to revolutionize vaccine development.