Historical Background
Natural Killer (NK) cells are a major component of the innate immune system, providing surveillance against infected or transformed cells without the requirement of prior host sensitization. NK cells were first discovered by their cytotoxic potency against tumor cells (Kiessling et al. 1975), and their importance was demonstrated early on in herpes viral infections, usually mild or localized, which become severe and life-threatening in NK-deficient patients. NK cell effector functions are governed by the balance of potentially opposing signals from a diverse array of both activating and inhibitory receptors on the cell surface that are not rearranged from germ-line receptor segments, unlike B and T cell receptors (BCRs, TCRs) on lymphocytes. While NK cells are now well characterized in terms of their...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Biassoni R. Human natural killer receptors, co-receptors, and their ligands. In: Current protocols in immunology, vol. 84. New York: Wiley; 2009. p. 14.10.1–40.
Billadeau DD, Upshaw JL, Schoon RA, Dick CJ, Leibson PJ. NKG2D-DAP10 triggers human NK cell-mediated killing via a Syk-independent regulatory pathway. Nat Immunol. 2003;4:557–64.
Boyington JC, Motyka SA, Schuck P, Brook AG, Sun PD. Crystal structure of an NK cell immunoglobulin-like receptor in complex with its class I MHC ligand. Nature. 2000;405:537–43.
Brandt CS, Baratin M, Yi EC, Kennedy J, Gao Z, Fox B, et al. The B7 family member B7-H6 is a tumor cell ligand for the activating natural killer cell receptor NKp30 in human. J Exp Med. 2009;206:1495–503.
Bryceson YT, Long EO. Line of attack: NK cell specificity and integration of signals. Curr Opin Immunol. 2008;20:344–52.
Fan QR, Long EO, Wiley DC. Crystal structure of the human natural killer cell inhibitory receptor KIR2DL1-HLA-Cw4 complex. Nat Immunol. 2001;2:452–60.
Gonzalez S, Groh V, Spies T. Immunobiology of human NKG2D and its ligands. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol. 2006;298:121–38.
Groh V, Wu J, Yee C, Spies T. Tumour-derived soluble MIC ligands impair expression of NKG2D and T-cell activation. Nature. 2002;419:734–8.
Kaiser BK, Yim D, Chow IT, Gonzalez S, Dai Z, Mann HH, et al. Disulfide-isomerase-enabled shedding of tumour-associated NKG2D ligands. Nature. 2007;447:482–6.
Kaiser BK, Pizarro JC, Kerns J, Strong RK. Structural basis of NKG2A/CD94 recognition of HLA-E. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008;105:6696–701.
Karlhofer FM, Ribaudo RK, Yokoyama WM. MHC class I alloantigen specificity of Ly-49+ IL-2-activated natural killer cells. Nature. 1992;358:66–70.
Karre K, Ljunggren HG, Piontek G, Kiessling R. Selective rejection of H-2-deficient lymphoma variants suggests alternative immune defense strategy. Nature. 1986;319:675–8.
Kiessling R, Klein E, Wigzell H. “Natural” killer cells in the mouse. I. Cytotoxic cells with specificity for mouse Moloney leukemia cells. Specificity and distribution according to genotype. Eur J Immunol. 1975;5:112–7.
Lanier LL. NK cell recognition. Annu Rev Immunol. 2005;23:225–74.
Lopez-Soto A, Folgueras AR, Seto E, Gonzalez S. HDAC3 represses the expression of NKG2D ligands ULBPs in epithelial tumour cells: potential implications for the immunosurveillance of cancer. Oncogene. 2009;28:2370–82.
MacFarlane AW, Campbell KS. Signal transduction in natural killer cells. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol. 2006;298:23–57.
Petrie EJ, Clements CS, Lin J, Sullivan LC, Johnson D, Huyton T, et al. CD94-NKG2A recognition of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-E bound to an HLA class I leader sequence. J Exp Med. 2008;205:725–35.
Shiroishi M, Kuroki K, Rasubala L, Tsumoto K, Kumagai I, Kurimoto E, et al. Structural basis for recognition of the nonclassical MHC molecule HLA-G by the leukocyte Ig-like receptor B2 (LILRB2/LIR2/ILT4/CD85d). Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006;103:16412–7.
Stern-Ginossar N, Elefant N, Zimmermann A, Wolf DG, Saleh N, Biton M. Host immune system gene targeting by a viral miRNA. Science. 2007;317:376–81.
Strong RK, McFarland BJ. NKG2D and related immunoreceptors. Adv Protein Chem. 2004;68:281–312.
Tormo J, Natarajan K, Natarajan K, Margulies DH, Mariuzza RA. Crystal structure of a lectin-like natural killer cell receptor bound to its MHC class I ligand. Nature. 1999;402:623–31.
Veillette A. Immune regulation by SLAM family receptors and SAP-related adaptors. Nat Rev Immunol. 2006;6:56–66.
Velikovsky CA, Deng L, Chlewicki LK, Fernandez MM, Kumar V, Mariuzza RA. Structure of natural killer receptor 2B4 bound to CD48 reveals basis for heterophilic recognition in signaling lymphocyte activation molecule family. Immunity. 2007;27:572–84.
Wilkinson GW, Tomasec P, Stanton RJ, Armstrong M, Prod’homme V, Aicheler R, et al. Modulation of natural killer cells by human cytomegalovirus. J Clin Virol. 2008;41:206–12.
Willcox BE, Thomas LM, Bjorkman PJ. Crystal structure of HLA-A2 bound to LIR-1, a host and viral major histocompatibility complex receptor. Nat Immunol. 2003;4(9):913.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Xu, B., Gewe, M., Finton, K., Strong, R.K. (2018). NK Receptor. In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67199-4_421
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67199-4_421
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-67198-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-67199-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences