An overall picture of chemokine receptors: basic research and drug development.

Chemokine receptors belong to the transmembrane G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) family. Although a major physiological role of chemokine receptors is for host defense by recruitment of lymphocytes to inflammatory sites, they are now found to be involved in more processes such as virus infection, tumor genesis and metastasis, and embryologic development. In this review, we show an overall picture of chemokine receptors in structure, signal transduction and modulation, physiological and pathological roles, and applying chemokine receptors for drug discovery.