Opportunities for novel therapeutic agents acting at chemokine receptors

Chemokines are proinflammatory mediators that primarily control leukocyte m igration into selected tissues and upregulation of adhesion:receptors. They also have a role in pathological conditions that require neovascularizatio n and are implicated in the suppression of viral replication. By interactio n with their respective G-protein-coupled receptor, chemokines have a profo und influence cover the selective recruitment of specific cell types in acu te inflammatory disease and, hence, inhibition of their action should be Of therapeutic benefit. Only now are small molecule inhibitors becoming avail able tb validate this speculation. In this review without seeking to be com prehensive, the authors provide an introduction to chemokines, their recept ors and their role in certain disease processes, Also, recent disclosures c laiming novel nonpeptide ligands for chemokine receptors are summarized.