About the Special Issue

Chemokines (Chemo-attractant cyto-kines) are homeostatic or inflammatory 10 KDa-proteins characterized by cysteine to cysteine disulfide-bridges. More than 30 human chemokines have been discovered so far and their main task is ruling immune cell migration. Their receptors belong to the 7-trasmembrane G-protein coupled receptor family and some of them are incidentally HIV co-receptors. This discovery led to the development of several antagonists to induce negative signaling affecting immune response. Nanotechnologies can also be designed to exploit this ligand-receptor interaction. Surface chemical modification of nanomaterials with chemokines or receptor-derived peptides can find several applications in bio-medicine, from specific drug delivery to reduced cell migration. Nanomaterial with intrinsic ability to adsorb inflammatory chemokines, for example, could remove the exceeding molecules during pathology-induced cytokine storms, such as during sepsis or Covid 19. Most of these nano-tools are still on the research bench, but they show great potential in immunology.

We warmly welcome your submissions for this Special Issue including (but not limited to) original papers regarding nanomaterial-chemokine interaction or nano-carriers for the released of chemokines, chemokine-derived peptides, antagonists, as well as interesting analysis of the growing literature in the field organized in review articles.

Keywords: chemokines, chemokine receptors, nanomaterials, nanoparticles, immune response, inflammation, drug delivery, immune-diagnostics

Call for Papers