Abstract
Chemokines (chemotactic cytokines) drive and direct leukocyte traffic. New evidence suggests that the unusual CCR6/CCL20 chemokine receptor/ligand axis provides key homing signals for recently identified cells of the adaptive immune system, recruiting both pro-inflammatory and suppressive T cell subsets. Thus CCR6 and CCL20 have been recently implicated in various human pathologies, particularly in autoimmune disease. These studies have revealed that targeting CCR6/CCL20 can enhance or inhibit autoimmune disease depending on the cellular basis of pathogenesis and the cell subtype most affected through different CCR6/CCL20 manipulations. Here, we discuss the significance of this chemokine receptor/ligand axis in immune and inflammatory functions, consider the potential for targeting CCR6/CCL20 in human autoimmunity and propose that the shared evolutionary origins of pro-inflammatory and regulatory T cells may contribute to the reason why both immune activation and regulation might be controlled through the same chemokine pathway.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1067-76 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | BioEssays |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 12 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published or Issued - Dec 2010 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Adaptive Immunity
- Autoimmune Diseases/immunology
- Chemokine CCL20/immunology
- Humans
- Immune Tolerance
- Inflammation/immunology
- Receptors, CCR6/immunology
- T-Lymphocytes/immunology
- T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory/metabolism
- Th17 Cells/metabolism