6 - Immune Receptors and Signal Transduction Flashcards
Cytokines
Low weight regulatory molecules (proteins or glycoproteins) secreted by immune cells and various other cells in response to stimuli
Ways of cytokine signalling
- Autocrine (same cell)
- Paracrine (close proximity)
- Endocrine (long distance)
Major categories of signalling receptors in the immune system
- a receptor that uses a non-receptor tyrosine kinase
- a receptor tyrosine kinase
- a nuclear receptor that binds its ligand and can then influence transcription
- a seven-transmembrane G protein–coupled receptor (GPCR)
- Notch, which recognizes a ligand on a distinct cell and is cleaved, yielding an intracellular fragment (IC Notch) that can enter the nucleus and influence transcription of specific target genes.
Non receptor tyrosine kinase-based receptors
- Regulate cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, adhesion, migration and apoptosis
- Mediate cytokine responses
Cytosolic signalling phase of NRTK
- The NRTK phosphorylates a key tyrosine residue on the cytoplasmic tail of the receptor
- The phosphotyrosine-containing receptor tail is able to recruit a downstream enzyme that is activated once its recruited
- Modifies a specific transcription factor that is located in the cytoplasm
Nuclear signalling phase of NRTK
- This modified transcription factor enters the nucleus and binds to a specific site in the promoter or in some other regulatory region of target genes and thus facilitates their expression
- Cytokines are produced by receptor-expressing cell
SRC family kinases
Immunologically important family of nonreceptor tyrosine kinases
c-SRC
- Cellular homolog of the transforming protein of the Rous sarcoma virus
- c-SRC contains several distinct domains, two of which, called SRC homology 2 (SH2) and SRC homology 3 (SH3) domains, mediate binding to other signaling proteins
FcγRIIB
Inhibitory receptor found on B cells and myeloid cells
Activating and inhibitory Immune receptors
- Immune receptors that activate immune cells have separate polypeptide chains for
recognition, and associated polypeptide chains that contain cytosolic ITAMs (immunoreceptor tyrosine activation motif) - Inhibitory receptors in the immune system typically have ITIMs on the cytosolic portion of
the same chain that uses its extracellular domain for ligand recognition
Structure of T cell receptor
- The antigen-binding portion of the TCR is formed by the Vβ and Vα domains.
- The hypervariable segment loops that form the
peptide-MHC binding site are at the top
TCR complex
- The CD3 and ζ proteins are noncovalently associated with the TCR αβ heterodimer to form the TCR complex
- When the TCR recognizes antigen, the associated
proteins transduce the signals that lead to T cell activation
CD3 and ζ proteins
- Identical in all T cells regardless of specificity, showing their role in signalling and not antigen recognition
- Required for surface expression of the complete receptor complex on T cells
Which cells express CD3
T cells
Other T cell receptors (besides TCR)
- CD3
- CD4
- CD8
- CD28
- CTLA-4
- PD-1
- LFA-1
CD3
- Signal transduction by TCR complex
- No ligand
CD4
- Signal transduction
- Ligand: Class II MHC expressed on APCs
CD8
- Signal transduction
- Ligand: Class I MHC on all nucleated cells
CD28
- Signal transduction (costimulation)
- Ligand: B7-1/B7-2 on APCs
CTLA-4
- Inhibition
- Ligand: B7-1/B7-2 on APCs
PD-1
- Inhibition
- has an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based switch motif (ITSM) in its cytoplasmic domain
- Ligand: PD-L1/PD-L2 on APCs, tissue cells and tumor cells
LFA-1
- Adhesion
- Ligand: ICAM-1 on APCS and enothelium
Early tyrosine kinase phosphorylation events in T cell activation
- On antigen recognition, there is clustering of T cell receptor complexes with coreceptors
- CD4-associated LCK becomes active and phosphorylates tyrosines in the ITAMs of CD3 and ζ chains
- ZAP70 binds to the phosphotyrosines of the ζ chains and is itself phosphorylated and activated.
- Active ZAP70 then phosphorylates tyrosines on
various adaptor molecules (such as LAT)
The immune synapse
supramolecular activation cluster (SMAC)
- When the TCR complex recognises MHC associated peptides on an APC, several T cell surface proteins and intracellular signalling
molecules are rapidly mobilized to the site of T cell–APC contact - PKC is a protein kinase involved in signal transduction
- Integrins LFA-1 and talin function to stabilise binding of the T cell to antigen presenting cell, APC