TLR4 and inflammation: For instance, Gram-negative bacteria-produced endotoxin lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and peptidoglycans can stimulate the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)- and NF-κB-involved inflammatory response, leading to systemic and renal inflammation, which further worsen kidney dysfunction (Sun et al., 2020a; Yang et al., 2020; Zhou et al., 2023).