Quantitative analysis of human NK cell reactivity using latex beads coated with defined amounts of antibodies.

Natural Killer (NK) cell responses are regulated by a variety of different surface receptors. While we can determine the overall positive or negative effect of a given receptor on NK cell functions, investigating NK cell regulation in a quantitative way is challenging. To quantitatively investigate individual receptors for their effect on NK cell activation, we chose to functionalize latex beads that have approximately the same size as lymphocytes with defined amounts of specific antibodies directed against distinct activating receptors. This enabled us to investigate NK cell reactivity in a defined, clean, and controllable system. Only CD16 and NKp30 could activate the degranulation of resting human NK cells. CD16, NKG2D, NKp30, NKp44, and NKp46 were able to activate cultured NK cells. NK cell activation resulted in the induction of polyfunctional cells that degranulated and produced IFN-γ and MIP-1ß. Interestingly, polyfunctional NK cells were only induced by triggering ITAM-coupled receptors. NKp44 showed a very sensitive response pattern, where a small increase in receptor stimulation caused maximal NK cell activity. In contrast, stimulation of 2B4 induced very little NK cell degranulation, while providing sufficient signal for NK cell adhesion. Our data demonstrate that activating receptors differ in their effectiveness to stimulate NK cells.

Differential Requirements for Src-Family Kinases in SYK or ZAP70-Mediated SLP-76 Phosphorylation in Lymphocytes.

In a synthetic biology approach using Schneider (S2) cells, we show that SLP-76 is directly phosphorylated at tyrosines Y113 and Y128 by SYK in the presence of ITAM-containing adapters such as CD3ζ, DAP12, or FcεRγ. This phosphorylation was dependent on at least one functional ITAM and a functional SH2 domain within SYK. Inhibition of Src-kinases by inhibitors PP1 and PP2 did not reduce SLP-76 phosphorylation in S2 cells, suggesting an ITAM and SYK dependent, but Src-kinase independent signaling pathway. This direct ITAM/SYK/SLP-76 signaling pathway therefore differs from previously described ITAM signaling. However, the SYK-family kinase ZAP70 required the additional co-expression of the Src-family kinases Fyn or Lck to efficiently phosphorylate SLP-76 in S2 cells. This difference in Src-family kinase dependency of SYK versus ZAP70-mediated ITAM-based signaling was further demonstrated in human lymphocytes. ITAM signaling in ZAP70-expressing T cells was dependent on the activity of Src-family kinases. In contrast, Src-family kinases were partially dispensable for ITAM signaling in SYK-expressing B cells or in natural killer cells, which express SYK and ZAP70. This demonstrates that SYK can signal using a Src-kinase independent ITAM-based signaling pathway, which may be involved in calibrating the threshold for lymphocyte activation.

Recruitment of activating NK-cell receptors 2B4 and NKG2D to membrane microdomains in mammalian cells is dependent on their transmembrane regions.

Membrane microdomains play an important role in the regulation of natural killer (NK) cell activities. These cholesterol-rich membrane domains are enriched at the activating immunological synapse and several activating NK-cell receptors are known to localize to membrane microdomains upon receptor engagement. In contrast, inhibitory receptors do not localize in these specialized membrane domains. In addition, the functional competence of educated NK cells correlates with a confinement of activating receptors in membrane microdomains. However, the molecular basis for this confinement is unknown. Here, we investigate the structural requirements for the recruitment of the human-activating NK-cell receptors NKG2D and 2B4 to detergent-resistant membrane fractions in the murine BA/F3 cell line and in the human NK-cell line NKL. This stimulation-dependent recruitment occurred independently of the intracellular domains of the receptors. However, either interfering with the association between NKG2D and DAP10, or mutating the transmembrane region of 2B4 impacted the recruitment of the receptors to detergent-resistant membrane fractions and modulated the function of 2B4 in NK cells. Our data suggest a potential interaction between the transmembrane region of NK-cell receptors and membrane lipids as a molecular mechanism involved in determining the membrane confinement of activating NK-cell receptors.

Regulation of 2B4 (CD244)-mediated NK cell activation by ligand-induced receptor modulation.

Natural killer (NK) cell activity can be stimulated by different surface receptors. 2B4 is a member of the signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM)-related receptor family and is important for stimulating human NK cell cytotoxicity and cytokine production. Here we show that stimulation of human NK cells by antibody-mediated 2B4 cross-linking or incubation with target cells expressing the 2B4 ligand CD48 results in a strong down-modulation of 2B4 surface expression. This down-modulation is observed in NK cell lines, purified human NK cells and NK cell clones, and is accompanied by an internalization of 2B4. The modulation of 2B4 is dependent on the activity of Src-family kinases, but independent of PI3 K activity or actin polymerization. Inhibitory receptors can interfere with 2B4-mediated signals and NK cell activation. However, co-engagement of inhibitory killer cell Ig-like receptors has no influence on the down-modulation of 2B4. This suggests that the modulation of 2B4 expression is independent of inhibitory receptors. The lower surface expression of 2B4 after ligand-induced down-modulation results in reduced 2B4-mediated NK cell activation and cytotoxicity. The modulation of activating surface receptors may therefore be another mechanism for the fine-tuning of NK cell activity and may lead to the adaptation of NK cell cytotoxicity in tissues with high ligand expression.

The use of trimeric isoleucine-zipper fusion proteins to study surface-receptor-ligand interactions in natural killer cells.

The ligands for several activating natural killer (NK) cell receptors have not been identified to date. Soluble receptor fusion proteins can be used to stain target cells for the presence of these unidentified ligands. Here, we describe the generation and use of soluble type I NK cell receptor isoleucine-zipper (ILZ) fusion proteins of the immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily. ILZ-fusion proteins are easy to produce and purify. They form trimeric complexes in solution and display a higher binding avidity than classical immunoglobulin-fusion proteins. ILZ-fusion proteins do not interact with Fc-receptors and can therefore be used to block receptor-ligand interactions in cellular assays. This makes ILZ-fusion proteins a valuable tool to study receptor-ligand interactions in NK cells and other cellular systems.

KIR enrichment at the effector-target cell interface is more sensitive than signaling to the strength of ligand binding.

Target cell lysis by natural killer cells is inhibited by killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) that bind major histocompatibility complex class I molecules. Many lymphocyte receptors, including KIR, become enriched at the interface with ligand-bearing cells. The contribution of the enrichment to inhibitory signaling has not been determined. We now describe a KIR variant with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) at the N terminus that can mediate inhibitory signaling, but its enrichment is markedly reduced. This receptor is only slightly weaker at inhibiting lysis than the same KIR tagged with EGFP in the cytoplasmic tail, even though the latter enriched as extensively as wild-type KIR. A slight defect was also detected in the ability of the receptor to reduce adhesion to target cells and for binding of a soluble counterpart to cell surface HLA-C. Our findings suggest that the strength of the interaction required to readily detect receptor enrichment exceeds that required for signaling.