C-Type lectin receptors: dual roles and therapeutic potential in immune modulation

C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) play central roles in immune recognition, engaging diverse endogenous and exogenous ligands through their C-type lectin-like domains (CTLDs). A growing body of evidence reveals that CLRs can drive opposing immunological outcomes — promoting protective immunity in some contexts while contributing to immune evasion and pathology in others. This functional duality is particularly consequential in cancer and infectious disease, where CLR signaling can tip the balance between effective immune surveillance and disease progression.Despite rapid advances in characterizing individual CLRs such as Dectin-1, DC-SIGN, Mincle, and CLEC9A, the field still lacks a unified understanding of how receptor-specific signaling, ligand context, and tissue microenvironment converge to determine whether a CLR-mediated response is protective or pathogenic. Translating this basic biology into therapeutic strategies — including CLR-targeted adjuvants, checkpoint modulation, and immunotherapy — remains an open challenge.This Research Topic invites original research, reviews, and perspectives that advance our understanding of CLR biology and its therapeutic applications. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:- Signaling mechanisms underlying context-dependent CLR functions, including crosstalk with TLR, NLR, and other innate sensing pathways- CLR roles in tumor immunity, including immune evasion, myeloid cell polarization, and antigen cross-presentation- CLR-pathogen interactions in fungal, viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections- Therapeutic targeting of CLRs, including agonist/antagonist development, vaccine adjuvant design, and engineered ligand approachesBy bringing together basic, translational, and clinical perspectives, this collection aims to build a more integrated view of how CLRs regulate immunity — and how that understanding can be harnessed for therapeutic benefit. Topic editors: Uday Kishore, Taruna Madan, Basel K Al-Ramadi Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80052/c-type-lectin-receptors-dual-roles-and-therapeutic-potential-in-immune-modulation