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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Immunol. Jul 27, 2016; 6(2): 96-104
Published online Jul 27, 2016. doi: 10.5411/wji.v6.i2.96
New insights on chitinases immunologic activities
Michelino Di Rosa, Violetta Maria Brundo, Lucia Malaguarnera
Michelino Di Rosa, Lucia Malaguarnera, Department of Biomedical and Biotechnology Sciences, University of Catania, 95124 Catania, Italy
Violetta Maria Brundo, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Catania, 95124 Catania, Italy
Author contributions: Di Rosa M analyzed and interpreted the data; Brundo VM collected the data; Malaguarnera L wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Lucia Malaguarnera, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Biomedical and Biotechnology Sciences, University of Catania, 95124 Catania, Italy. lucmal@unict.it
Telephone: +39-095-313429 Fax: +39-095-320267
Received: June 28, 2015
Peer-review started: July 5, 2015
First decision: September 17, 2015
Revised: March 15, 2016
Accepted: April 7, 2016
Article in press: April 11, 2016
Published online: July 27, 2016
Processing time: 387 Days and 23.8 Hours
Abstract

Mammalian chitinases and the related chilectins (ChiLs) belong to the GH18 family, which hydrolyse the glycosidic bond of chitin by a substrate-assisted mechanism. Chitin the fundamental component in the coating of numerous living species is the most abundant natural biopolymer. Mounting evidence suggest that the function of the majority of the mammalian chitinases is not exclusive to catalyze the hydrolysis of chitin producing pathogens, but include crucial role specific in the immunologic activities. The chitinases and chitinase-like proteins are expressed in response to different proinflammatory cues in various tissues by activated macrophages, neutrophils and in different monocyte-derived cell lines. The mechanism and molecular interaction of chitinases in relation to immune regulation embrace bacterial infection, inflammation, dismetabolic and degenerative disease. The aim of this review is to update the reader with regard to the role of chitinases proposed in the recent innate and adaptive immunity literature. The deep scrutiny of this family of enzymes could be a useful base for further studies addressed to the development of potential procedure directing these molecules as diagnostic and prognostic markers for numerous immune and inflammatory diseases.

Keywords: Chitinases; Chitinase like proteins; Chronic inflammation; Immune regulation; Autoimmunity

Core tip: The chitinases and chitinase-like proteins are expressed in response to different pro-inflammatory signals by activated macrophages and in different monocyte-derived cell lines. The mechanism and molecular interaction of chitinases in the immune regulation embrace bacterial infection, inflammation, dismetabolic and degenerative disease. The concept of the chitinases involvement in human diseases discussed herein may stimulate the development of new studies leading to a deeper understanding on the biochemical mechanisms inducing chitinases regulation and on the consequences that the increases in chitinases levels impact with immunity and autoimmunity in different conditions. The future understanding on chitinase functions will lead to the opportunity to develop selective and specific chitinase inhibitors.