Chemokines and asthma.

The migration of cells towards and into the site of an inflammatory insult is critical for maintenance of the inflammatory response and its resolution. This is particularly so in the case of asthma where recruitment of key effector cells may control disease severity, responsiveness to current therapies and the airway remodelling associated with the disease. Chemokine receptor antagonists have the hope of preventing inflammatory cell recruitment to the airway and perhaps as a consequence affect the resolution of airway remodelling. A number of selective antagonists directed at various CC and CXC receptors thought to be important in asthma are currently at various stages of clinical development. Results from these studies will determine whether chemokine receptor antagonists will prove beneficial in severe glucocorticoid-dependent and -resistant asthmatic subjects. Furthermore, it is possible that early treatment with these agents may prevent the disease from becoming established.