10. Lymphocyte signalling 2 Flashcards
Why are receptors drug targets?
Because you don’t have to get things through the plasma membrane.
What principles from the CD28 receptor family can be applied to other receptors?
- Receptors come in families
- There are activating and inhibitory receptors.
- Receptors contain protein interaction motifs like ITAM or ITIM.
- Signalling moves downstream through protein recruitment like TCR to Lck to ZAP70
What is the structure of the BCR?
- It is simpler then the TCR
- It is a surface immunoglobulin that has the same light and heavy variable chains as the antibody it will produce.
- It has a short transmembrane anchor that doesn’t extend into the cytoplasm.
- It has 2 conserved signalling chains called Iga and Igß that contain 1 ITAM each and transduce the antigen recognition signal.
What is the signalling mechanism of the BCR?
- Cross-linking of antigen recognition region causes the recruitment of src family kinase called Lyn or Fyn.
- Lyn phosphorylates the ITAMs.
- This recruits Syk family kinases.
- Syk provides the enzymatic activity associated with BCR activation.
What are immunoglobulin superfamily receptors?
- This is the family that the TCR and BCR belong to.
- It is named for the immunoglobulin fold within the receptor structure.
- Other receptors in this family is FcR and NK cell receptors.
What is the Fc Receptor?
- It binds the Fc domain of an antibody.
- It can activate or inhibit the cell it binds to.
- FcR are expressed on every innate cell for activation and on B cells to provide negative feedback.
- A function of Fc receptors includes opsonisation of pathogens to aid phagocytosis
Where is the FcR expressed?
Innate immune cells:
1. Macrophages
2. Neutrophils
3. Eosinophils
4. Mast cells
5. NK cells
Why are there lots of different Fc receptors?
To recognise different antibody classes.
How do activating Fc receptors work?
- Function the same as BCRs and TCRs.
- They have separate signalling chain called the FC gamma chain.
- Fc gamma contains an ITAM.
How do inhibitory Fc receptors work?
- Only on B cells
- For negative feedback
- This allows the B cell response to be terminated once the infection is cleared.
- Contains ITIMs that recruit phosphatases.
What is the conserved signalling mechanism in the FcR?
- Activated by the antigen/antibody complex crosslinking the receptor.
- This causes the recruitment of Src kinases usually Lyn.
- Lyn phosphorylates the ITAMs.
- This causes the recruitment of Syk kinases called Syk.
- Syk provides the enzymatic activity for the FcR.
How are Fc receptors used in drug design?
- When making anti-CTLA4 antibodies you bind 2 anti-CTLA4 to an Fc antibody fragment.
- The primary function of this is to bind to CTLA4 to prevent it binding CD80/86. This keeps T cells active.
- The secondary function is the anti-CTLA4 antibodies coat the surface of Treg cells meaning the Fc fragment faces outwards and is free to bind.
- This triggers APCs to undergo antibody dependant cellular cytotoxicity and delete Treg cells.
- This enhances the immune response.
- But it needs to be considered when you design drugs if you want the Fc region to be exposed
What 2 signals are needed to activate NK cells?
- Activating receptors that engage stress proteins expressed on cells.
- inhibitory receptors that bind MHC1 and need to be released to activate an NK cell.
How do the inhibitory receptors on NK cells work?
- It binds MHC1.
- They are critical to prevent damage to healthy cells. All healthy nucleated cells express MHC1.
- This means the default state of NK cells is inhibited.
- When a cell is not expressing MHC1, it means it has intracellular problems eg cancer or viral infection.
- This loss of MHC1 releases the inhibition of NK cells.
How do the activating receptors on NK cells work?
- If the MHC1 is lost and the inhibitory receptor is released, the NK cell can be activated.
- A stress ligand expressed on the same cell can engage the activating receptor.
- This causes the full activation of the NK cell.
How can you distinguish the activating and inhibitory receptors?
The activating receptors contain ITAMs and contain a positively charged transmembrane residue.
What is the function of the positive residue in the NK cell receptor transmembrane region?
- It allows the NK receptor to associate with its signalling chains.
- The signalling chains are either DAP10 or DAP12.
- DAP10 and DAP12 have negative charges in their transmembrane domains.
What is the signalling motif and protein recruited of DAP10?
Signalling motif: tyrosine X X methionine - YXXM (This is the same in CD28 and ICOS).
This recruits the lipid kinase PI 3-kinase.
What is the signalling motif and protein recruited of DAP12?
Signalling motif: tyrosine X X Leucine/Isoleucine - YXXL/I.
This recruits a Syk family kinase.
What is conserved signalling in Nk cells DAP12 associated receptors?
- Receptor activation.
- Recruitment of a Src family kinase to phosphorylate the ITAMs.
- This recruits a Syk family kinase.
What is conserved signalling in Nk cells DAP10 associated receptors?
- Receptor activation.
- Recruitment of a Src family kinase to phosphorylate the ITAMs.
- This recruits PI 3-kinase.