The relevance of the chemokine receptor ACKR3/CXCR7 on CXCL12-mediated effects in cancers with a focus on virus-related cancers

Recent studies have highlighted the importance of understanding the molecular determinants of CXCL12-mediated effects in cancers. Once previously thought to interact exclusively with OCCR4, CXCL12 also binds with high affinity to OCCR7 (recently renamed ACKR3), which belongs to an atypical chemokine receptor family whose members fail to activate God proteins but interact with beta-arrestins. In addition to its capacity to control CXCL12 bioavailability, ACKR3 can either enhance or dampen CXCR4-mediated signaling and activity. In light of the most recent findings, we have examined the role of ACKR3 in cancer, including a subset of virus-related cancers. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.