Involvement of chemokines and these receptors in glioblastoma

Abstract

Chemokines are a group of cytokines which are involved in the migration of immune cells as well as other cell types such as endothelial cells. These molecules normally regulate the homeostasis in our body’s immune system. Furthermore, it has been reported that chemokines mediate the onset and progression of various diseases including allergic diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancers through the recruitment of immune cells to inflammatory sites. Glioblastoma is one of the primary brain tumors with a significantly poor prognosis. Similarly to other tumors, it has been observed that various immune cells infiltrate into the brain tumor tissues. However, the details of the mechanisms remain unclear. At present, cancer immunotherapy is vigorously researched, and is proved to be effective for many cancers. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy has not yet been shown in glioblastoma. Chemokine is thought to be one of the important factors for cancer immunotherapy. Therefore, understanding the role of chemokines in glioblastoma is considered to be beneficial for the development of cancer immunotherapy. In this review, we overview the role of chemokines and these receptors in glioblastoma.