The role of this balance shift in chronic diseases such as: inflammatory bowel disease, amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, liver disease, or rheumatic diseases, is still poorly understood, but creates an avenue of research for future investigation especially in diseases where there is known involvement of bacterial products and/or NF-κB/IRF3 signalling15,33–35. The gene discussed is IRF3; the disease is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.