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Review
. 2020 Mar 9:9:43-56.
doi: 10.2147/ITT.S243636. eCollection 2020.

Role of Chemokines and Chemokine Receptors in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Noha Mousaad Elemam  1 , Suad Hannawi  2 , Azzam A Maghazachi  1
Affiliations
Review

Role of Chemokines and Chemokine Receptors in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Noha Mousaad Elemam et al. Immunotargets Ther. .

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most prevalent autoimmune diseases and a prototypic inflammatory disease, affecting the small joints of the hands and feet. Chemokines and chemokine receptors play a critical role in RA pathogenesis via immune cells recruitment. Several chemokines and chemokine receptors are abundant in the peripheral blood and in the local inflamed joints of RA. Furthermore, synthetic and biologics disease modifying anti rheumatic drugs have been reported to affect chemokines expression. Thus, many studies have focused on targeting chemokines and chemokine receptors, where some have shown positive promising results. However, most of the chemokine blockers in human trials of RA treatment displayed some failures that can be attributed to several reasons in their structures and binding affinities. Nevertheless, targeting chemokines will continue to be under development, in order to improve their therapeutic potentials in RA and other autoimmune diseases. In this review we provide an up-to-date knowledge regarding the role of chemokines and chemokine receptors in RA with an emphasis on their activities on immune cells. We also discussed the effects of drugs targeting those molecules in RA. This knowledge might provide impetus for developing new therapeutic modalities to treat this chronic disease.

Keywords: chemokine receptors; chemokines; drugs; immunotargets; immunotherapy; rheumatoid arthritis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemokine involvement in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. Various immune cells secrete chemokines that affect the joints. (A) Chemokines secreted in the peripheral blood by immune cells. (B) Chemokines secreted inside the joints by various immune and non-immune cells.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effect of current RA therapies on chemokines as well as the current chemokine targeted therapies in RA. Closed arrows indicate antagonism.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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