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The nuclear protein HMGB1, a new kind of chemokine?
Author(s) -
Degryse Bernard,
de Virgilio Maddalena
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(03)01027-5
Subject(s) - chemokine , hmgb1 , ccr1 , chemokine receptor , chemotaxis , proinflammatory cytokine , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , immunology , receptor , inflammation , biochemistry
The chromosomal protein HMGB1 is now regarded as a proinflammatory cytokine. Importantly, HMGB1 has chemotactic activity suggesting its involvement in the early and late events of the inflammatory reaction. Therefore, HMGB1 has all the hallmarks of a chemokine (chemotactic cytokine). We propose to classify HMGB1 into a new group of proteins unrelated structurally to chemokines but having chemokine‐like functions, and to name this class CLF (chemokine‐like functions). The CLF class should include other unrelated molecules such as urokinase and its receptor, cytokines macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) and interleukin (IL)‐6, anaphylatoxin C5a, ribosomal protein S19, and thioredoxin that have similar chemokine‐like activities. This innovative concept may lead to the identification of new therapeutic targets.