Chemokines are little appreciated components in cancer metastasis and herbs and compounds have been known to down-regualte their activities.
Chemokines are little appreciated components in cancer metastasis and herbs and compounds have been known to down-regualte their activities. This brief introduction looks at the mechanisms of inflammation and how it is involved in tumour initiation and progression. Don’t forget to send your email address so I may send you the herb research. Remember, this is a non-commercial site and we never share your email.
Daniel
The inflammatory response is a highly co-ordinated process involving multiple factors acting in a complex network as stimulators or inhibitors. Upon infection, the sequential release of exogenous agents (e.g. bacterial and viral products) and induction of endogenous mediators (e.g. cytokines and chemokines) contribute to the recruitment of circulating leukocytes to the inflamed tissue. Microbial products trigger multiple cell types to release cytokines, which in turn are potent inducers of chemokines (Gouwy et al, 2005).
Chemokines play a paramount role in the tumour progression. Chronic inflammation promotes tumour formation. Both tumour cells and stromal cells elaborate chemokines and cytokines. These act either by autocrine or paracrine mechanisms to sustain tumour cell growth, induce angiogenesis and facilitate evasion of immune surveillance through immuno-editing. The role of specific chemokines/chemokine receptor interactions in tumour progression, growth and metastasis and the role of chemokine/chemokine receptor interactions in the stromal compartment as related to angiogenesis, metastasis, and immune response to the tumour are critically important (Raman et al 2007).
Angiogenesis, or new blood vessel growth from pre-existing vasculature, is a preeminent feature of successful tumour growth of all solid tumours. While a number of factors produced by both the tumour cells and host responding cells have been discovered that regulate angiogenesis, increasing evidence is growing to support the important role of CXC chemokines in this process. As a family of cytokines, the CXC chemokines are pleiotropic in their ability to regulate tumour-associated angiogenesis, as well as cancer cell metastases (Keeley et al, 2005).
Chemokines and their receptors have been shown to affect many cellular functions including survival, adhesion, invasion, proliferation, and circulating chemokine levels. A growing body of evidence supports a chemokine-mediated mechanism for the metastatic spread of tumour cells: in vitro and in vivo models have shown that chemokines regulate tumour-associated angiogenesis (a prerequisite for metastasis), activate host tumour-specific immunologic responses, and direct tumour cell proliferation in an autocrine fashion (Ben-Baruch 2009).
Ben-Baruch, A. Site-specific metastasis formation: Chemokines as regulators of tumour cell adhesion, motility and invasion, Cell Adh. Migr. 3 (4) (2009), pp. 328–333.
Gouwy, M., Struyf, S., Proost, P. & Van Damme, J. Synergy in cytokine and chemokine networks amplifies the inflammatory response. Cytokine & Growth Factor Reviews. Volume 16, Issue 6, December 2005, Pp. 561-80. doi:10.1016/j.cytogfr.2005.03.005
Keeley, E.C., Mehrad, B. & Strieter, R.M. CXC Chemokines in Cancer Angiogenesis and Metastases. Current Topics in Membranes. Vol 55, 2005, Pp. 255-88. doi:10.1016/S1063-5823(04)55010-X
Raman, D., Baugher, P.J., Thu, Y.M. & Richmond, A. Role of chemokines in tumour growth. Cancer Letters. Vol 256, Issue 2, 28 October 2007, Pp. 137-65. doi:10.1016/j.canlet.2007.05.013
