Department of Experimental Medicine & Biotechnology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh 160012, India.
Crit Rev Biotechnol. 2010 Mar;30(1):1-22. doi: 10.1080/07388550903187418.
Chemokines are a family of small, structurally related proteins that may participate in immune and inflammatory responses through the chemoattraction and activation of leukocytes. These chemotactic cytokines mediate their effects by binding to the seven transmembrane domain superfamily of receptor proteins. Besides their role in leukocyte trafficking, chemokines and their receptors have been found to be implicated in a number of inflammatory and infectious diseases. Chemokines also appear to have beneficial effects involving tissue repair or tumor progression, angiogenesis, hematopoiesis, and antimicrobial mechanisms. These have recently been found to be involved in coordinating the cellular communication in the central nervous system as well. Based on these findings, chemokines agonists and antagonists targeted against chemokines and their receptors have the potential to become therapeutically important in the treatment of various diseases. This review explores the role of the chemokine system in the pathophysiology of diseases and their potential as targets for therapy.
趋化因子是一小类结构相关的蛋白质，通过趋化和激活白细胞，可能参与免疫和炎症反应。这些趋化细胞因子通过与七跨膜域受体蛋白超家族结合来发挥作用。除了在白细胞迁移中的作用外，趋化因子及其受体还被发现与许多炎症和感染性疾病有关。趋化因子似乎还具有涉及组织修复或肿瘤进展、血管生成、造血和抗菌机制的有益作用。最近发现，它们还参与了中枢神经系统中细胞通讯的协调。基于这些发现，针对趋化因子及其受体的趋化因子激动剂和拮抗剂有可能成为治疗各种疾病的重要治疗手段。本综述探讨了趋化因子系统在疾病病理生理学中的作用及其作为治疗靶点的潜力。
