Role of CCR6 and CCL20 chemokines in rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune illness. It is a well-known inflammatory condition that affects tiny joints in hands and feet. The inflammatory joints and peripheral blood are rich in chemokines and their receptors that are specific to RA. There have been reports that anti-rheumatic drugs, both biologic and synthetic, change how chemokines are expressed. Targeting chemokines and chemokine receptors has been subject of numerous studies that have produced promising results. In this review, we elucidated potential role and relevance of the CCR6-CCL20 axis in RA. In order to perform this study, relevant publications were searched for using key words such as RA, chemokines, chemokine receptors, CCR6, CCL20 in the academic databases, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar. We obtained a total of ten articles that met our review criteria. Many articles excluded by the year of publication criteria are out-of-date according to our review method considerations. This is due to the lack of publication of research articles related to the topic of our review. The present review give support that chemokine signaling are playing a critical role in pathogenesis for RA, as numerous chemokines and their corresponding receptors contribute to recruitment of immune cells into arthritic joints. Among these, the CCR6-CCL20 pair holds particular significance in recruitment and organization of immune cells within affected joints. Thus, targeting chemokines represents a promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of RA.