Opportunities for pharmacological management of macrophage polarization

Abstract

Macrophages play a key role in the pathogenesis of many human diseases. Both evaluation of M2/M1 macrophage ratio and discovering definite roles of macrophage phenotypes in this diseases may be used as criteria for assessment of effectiveness of treatment and for predicting prognosis of patients. Moreover, macrophage reprogramming seems to be a perspective therapeutic strategy for the diseases with inflammatory component in their pathogenesis. This review is based on articles published mainly in last five years and describes the results of the studies for some substances, most of them being used in current medical practice. This agents have been proven to have determined affection on macrophage polarization, its signal pathways, etc. Influencing macrophage reprogramming by such agents seems to be an important strategy in modern medicine.