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Chemokine receptors on neutrophils: functionality and involvement in chronic lung disease

Subject Area Pneumology, Thoracic Surgery
Term from 2009 to 2016
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 115015241
 
Final Report Year 2016

Final Report Abstract

Chronic lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are characterized by an accumulation of airway neutrophils. Chemokines recruit and activate neutrophils via chemokine receptors. As G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), chemokine receptors are highly relevant for therapeutic approaches. Therefore, a precise knowledge on the involvement of specific chemokine receptors in chronic lung diseases is required. We previously identified the chemokine receptor CXCR1 on neutrophils as a critical target in chronic lung disease, since we found that CXCR1 mediates key antibacterial neutrophil functions, but is cleaved proteolytically in protease-dominated airway microenvironments. We further found that airway neutrophils in chronic lung diseases adapt their chemokine receptor expression profile through translocation of intracellular chemokine receptors, such as CXCR4. Based on these previous studies, our aims were to address the following issues in the proposed research group: To investigate specific cellular pathways in neutrophils engaged through chemokine receptors, to identify the genetic and molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of chemokine receptor expression and to characterize the functional role of chemokines and chemokine receptors in neutrophilic lung disease in vivo. Our published studies demonstrate (i) that genetic CXCR1/CXCR2 haplotypes are associated with CF lung disease, (ii) that CXCR1 cleavage involves a novel interactive network of elastase, secretases and PAR-2 and (iii) that CXCR1 is involved in anti-Pseudomonas aeruginosa host defence in vivo. These studies add to our understanding how neutrophils are involved in CF lung disease, which could pave the way for further diagnostic and/or therapeutic strategies in the field.

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