Chemokines in viral disease

Chemokines or chemotactic cytokines are small peptide molecules involved in the recruitment of leukocytes to sites of infection. This article reviews recent research investigating the interaction between chemokines and viral infection. There is considerable evidence from cellular studies showing that both respiratory epithelium and recruited neutrophils contribute to the chemokine response in paramyxovirus infection. We have shown that plasma concentrations of IL8, a neutrophil and T-cell chemoattractant, are elevated in patients with respiratory syncytial virus infection compared to controls (p < 0.03). In retroviral infection such as that caused by HIV, monocytes and macrophages are the principal source of chemokines involved in recruitment of antiviral leukocytes. Secretion of certain chemokines such as monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, during the immune response to infection, may be dysregulated by concomitant HIV infection, and such effects may be due to actions of specific controlling elements in the viral genome such as the tat region. Herpesviruses adopt a different strategy of expressing chemokine receptors to either utilize or subvert the host chemokine response. Thus, there are diverse and complex interactions involving chemokines and viral infection which we are only just beginning to dissect.