The virtue lies in moderation: chemokines stories

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Why moderation is a virtue for our body?

Ancient Romans used to say in Latin "In medio stat virtus" (which can be translated as "the virtue lies in moderation"). They meant that an extreme life (either full of excesses of with constant lack of anything) is not the wisest way of living and the "good" alternative to follow would be a moderate life style. What if this idea came to them by observing the nature around them? Nature works according to a similar principle, since it does not like waste of energy and resources. This is the reason why our body reacts in specific ways whenever an unbalanced condition is happening (naturally, genetically, or artificially), in order to re-establish the equilibrium.

Many functions in our body are regulated by specific biological molecules., called proteins. Proteins are produced (or expressed, as biologists say) as a result of a specific DNA data set. It is just the DNA that decides if and what proteins our body is going to have. This process starts already during the embryonal stage (when we are little like a bean!) and it is finely regulated and controlled to avoid mistakes as much as possible. Since our body functioning is highly complicated from an evolutionary point of view, several types of proteins have been discovered and studied to understand their roles, especially for therapeutic purposes.

A diverse family of proteins: chemokines receptors and CXCR4

What can cause changes in chemokine receptors expression?

Take-home message

References

Assessed and Endorsed by the MedReport Medical Review Board