Zlotnik Albert
Department of Molecular Medicine, Neurocrine Biosciences, San Diego, Calif., USA.
Contrib Microbiol. 2006;13:191-199. doi: 10.1159/000092973.
The chemokines are a family of small proteins known for their ability to control cell migration in the body. Their receptors belong to the class A subfamily of G protein-coupled receptors. In recent years, chemokines have grown in importance, because they are involved in inflammation and autoimmune disease. Some of them are also involved in infectious disease, since two chemokine receptors, CXCR4 and CCR5, are used by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to gain entry to cells. Several years ago it also became clear that chemokines can also influence tumor cells. Specifically, tumor cells express chemokine receptors in a nonrandom manner, and this suggested a role for chemokines in the metastatic destination of tumor cells. By far the most common chemokine receptor expressed by many cancer cells is CXCR4. Its ligand, CXCL12, is strongly expressed in lung, liver, bone marrow and lymph nodes, places that represent common metastatic destinations in many cancers. Many studies have now validated the concept that chemokines and their receptors influence metastasis. The potential therapeutic importance of these observations depends on the role that each metastatic destination such as liver, lung, bone marrow, etc., plays in the prognosis of a cancer patient.
趋化因子是一类小蛋白家族，以其在体内控制细胞迁移的能力而闻名。它们的受体属于G蛋白偶联受体A类亚家族。近年来，趋化因子的重要性日益凸显，因为它们参与炎症和自身免疫性疾病。其中一些还与传染病有关，因为人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）利用两种趋化因子受体CXCR4和CCR5进入细胞。几年前还明确了趋化因子也能影响肿瘤细胞。具体而言，肿瘤细胞以非随机方式表达趋化因子受体，这表明趋化因子在肿瘤细胞的转移目的地中发挥作用。到目前为止，许多癌细胞表达的最常见趋化因子受体是CXCR4。其配体CXCL12在肺、肝、骨髓和淋巴结中强烈表达，这些部位是许多癌症常见的转移目的地。现在许多研究已经证实了趋化因子及其受体影响转移的概念。这些观察结果潜在的治疗重要性取决于每个转移目的地（如肝脏、肺、骨髓等）在癌症患者预后中所起的作用。
