Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 2004, 69, 535-563

Carbohydrate and Non-Carbohydrate Ligands for the C-Type Lectin-Like Receptors of Natural Killer Cells. A Review

Karel Bezouška

Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Hlavova 8, 128 40 Prague 2, Czech Republic and Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Vídeňská 1083, 142 20 Prague 4, Czech Republic


The superfamily of C-type animal lectins is defined by a sequence motif of the carbohydrate- recognition domains (CRDs) and comprises seven groups of molecules. The soluble proteins are group I proteoglycans, group III collectins, and group VII containing the isolated CRDs. Type I membrane proteins include group IV selectins and group VI macrophage receptors and related molecules. Type II membrane proteins are group II hepatic lectins and group V natural killer cell receptors. The latter group has recently attracted considerable attention of the biomedical community. These receptors are arranged at the surface of lymphocytes as homo- or heterodimers composed of two polypeptides consisting of N-terminal peptide tails responsible for signaling, transmembrane domain, neck regions of varying length, and C-terminal lectin-like domains (CTLDs). Since this group is evolutionarily most distant from the rest of C-type animal lectins, the sequence of the C-terminal ligand-binding domain has diversified to accommodate other ligands than calcium or carbohydrates. These domains are referred to as natural killer domains (NKDs) forming a large percentage of CTLDs in vertebrates. Here are summarized the data indicating that calcium, carbohydrates, peptides, and large proteins such as major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I can all be ligands for NKDs. The wide range of ligands that can be recognized by NKDs includes some new, unexpected compounds such as signal peptide-derived fragments, heat shock proteins, or oxidized lipids. The biological importance of this extended range of recognition abilities is also discussed. A review with 134 references.

Keywords: Calcium; Carbohydrates; Carbohydrate-binding protein; Lectins; Oligosaccharides; Ligands; Peptides; Proteins; MHC class I; Heat shock protein; Signal peptide; Processing; Activating and inhibitory receptors; Adaptor proteins.

References: 134 live references.