Chemokines and chemokine receptors as targets in the therapy of psoriasis.

Chemokines are members of a superfamily of small, cytokine-like, chemotactic proteins that have recently been shown to critically regulate leukocyte trafficking. Accumulating evidence indicates that the chronically relapsing inflammatory skin disease psoriasis represents a T cell-mediated disease. Thus, the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of memory T cell homing to the skin may provide promising targets for the development of novel therapeutics. Here results of recent studies associating chemokines with a psoriatic phenotype and delineating their role in the recruitment of memory T cells to the skin are discussed.