Chemokines as therapeutic targets in renal disease

Increased understanding of the fundamental importance of the role of chemok ines and their receptors in inflammation, together with the demonstration o f their involvement in human and experimental inflammatory renal disease, m ake these molecules potential therapeutic targets. A number of recent studi es using genetically deficient mice and chemokine receptor antagonists in a nimal models have demonstrated that chemokine inhibition can attenuate expe rimental renal injury. Because there is simultaneous expression of multiple chemokines and receptors in disease, strategies that are aimed at antagoni zing multiple chemokines receptor interactions are likely to be more effect ive than therapies that target a single chemokine. It is also now recognize d that chemokines are involved in normal immune development and immune regu lation. These observations, together with the results of studies that have demonstrated deleterious effects of chemokine receptor antagonism in experi mental renal disease, highlight the need for thorough understanding of the role of individual chemokines in the pathogenesis of different types of ren al disease before optimal therapeutic interventions may be achieved. Curr O pin Nephrol Hypertens 9:505-511. (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.