Chemokines and chemokine receptors: Large and small therapeutic strategies for inflammatory diseases

Chemokines and their receptors function in leukocyte trafficking to sites of inflammation and cellular activation and are attractive therapeutic targets for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Developing therapeutics for this family of molecules has proved challenging. Small and large molecule therapeutics are now in development for several key receptor-ligand pairs. Neither strategy has yielded human proof of concept for intervening in this pathway; however, we are now closer than ever to realizing this goal.

Section editor:Martin Braddock – AstraZeneca R&D Charnwood, Loughborough, UK