Role of chemokine receptors in allergic diseases

Immune cell trafficking is orchestrated by a family of small proteins named chemokines and leucocytes express chemokine receptors on their surface. Once chemokines are attached to these receptors, they trigger transendothelial migration. During basal conditions as well in various diseases, leukocyte migration is a crucial step for the immune system. Excessive or inappropriate expression of chemokine receptors in allergy is thus one of the key factors, which trigger the allergic response. Consequently, many studies have been made on the importance of chemokines and their receptors in allergic diseases such as asthma, food allergy and atopic dermatitis. Moreover, as these receptors can easily be blocked by an antagonist, this has led to the development of new therapeutic approaches aimed at suppressing the recruitment of immune cells during an allergic reaction. In this review, we will detail which chemokines and which chemokine receptors are important in the three main allergic diseases mentioned above and describe the chemokine receptor antagonists, which have been developed to date