Patent ID: 7785794

Claim:
A method of identifying a human at risk of, or having, an indication associated with altered innate immunity, comprising: a) contacting an amount of a nucleic acid sample obtained from a human physiological sample with an amount of at least one Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4)-specific oligonucleotide under conditions effective to amplify TLR4 DNA having SEQ ID NO:62, the complement thereof, or a portion thereof, so as to yield amplified TLR4 DNA, that includes nucleic acids that encode residue 299 or 399 of a TLR4 polypeptide wherein the at least one TLR4-specific oligonucleotide comprises at least two nucleotide substitutions which result in a restriction site that is indicative of a polymorphism in a human TLR4 gene, which polymorphism results in a TLR4 gene that encodes a TLR4 polypeptide with an amino acid substitution at residue 299 or 399; and b) detecting or determining whether the amplified TLR4 DNA comprises nucleic acid encoding a TLR4 polypeptide having an amino acid substitution at residue 299 or 399, thereby identifying whether the human is at risk of or has an indication associated with innate immunity.