Murine NKG2D ligands: "double, double toil and trouble". Mol Immunol 2009 Mar;46(6):1011-9
Date
12/17/2008Pubmed ID
19081632Pubmed Central ID
PMC2764959DOI
10.1016/j.molimm.2008.09.035Scopus ID
2-s2.0-61449189831 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 40 CitationsAbstract
Unlike T and B cells, NK cells lack variable, clonotypic receptors that recognize foreign antigens. Instead, NK cells depend on conserved receptors such as NKG2D. NKG2D recognizes a variety of inducible self-proteins that belong to the non-classical MHC class I family. They include ULBP (1-3), MIC (A & B) in human and H60 (a, b & c), Rae-1 (alpha-epsilon) and Mult1 in mice. These self-proteins are expressed due to pathological stimuli, share limited amino acid homology and form the molecular basis for NKG2D-mediated activation. Recent studies have vastly improved our understanding of NKG2D receptor-mediated activation, signaling and function. However, a detailed knowledge on the immunobiology of its ligands is lacking. How many is too many? Is NKG2D the only receptor for these ligands? Where are these ligands expressed? What are the molecular mechanisms that regulate their expression? Do normal cells express these ligands? Does the communication between NKG2D receptor and its ligands travel through a two way road? If so, what do the 'target' cells get in turn, only death? How efficient are these ligands as molecular targets for NK cell-mediated tumor immunotherapy?
Author List
Samarakoon A, Chu H, Malarkannan SAuthor
Subramaniam Malarkannan PhD Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Amino Acid SequenceAnimals
Histocompatibility Antigens Class I
Immunotherapy
Killer Cells, Natural
Ligands
Lymphocyte Activation
Mice
Molecular Sequence Data
NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily K
Neoplasms
Phylogeny
Protein Conformation
Signal Transduction
