Low dosages: new chemotherapeutic weapons on the battlefield of immune-related disease.

Chemotherapeutic drugs eliminate tumor cells at relatively high doses and are considered weapons against tumors in clinics and hospitals. However, despite their ability to induce cellular apoptosis, chemotherapeutic drugs should probably be regarded more as a class of cell regulators than cell killers, if the dosage used and the fact that their targets are involved in basic molecular events are considered. Unfortunately, the regulatory properties of chemotherapeutic drugs are usually hidden or masked by the massive cell death induced by high doses. Recent evidence has begun to suggest that low dosages of chemotherapeutic drugs might profoundly regulate various intracellular aspects of normal cells, especially immune cells. Here, we discuss the immune regulatory roles of three kinds of chemotherapeutic drugs under low-dose conditions and propose low dosages as potential new chemotherapeutic weapons on the battlefield of immune-related disease.