Authors: Wu, Lan; Kaer, Luc V.

Source: Current Molecular Medicine, Volume 9, Number 1, February 2009 , pp. 4-14(11)

Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers

Abstract:

Natural killer T (NKT) cells are an unusual subset of innate immune cells that express a surface receptor generated by somatic DNA rearrangement, a hallmark of cells of the adaptive immune system. NKT cells express a highly restricted repertoire of T cell receptors that recognize glycolipid antigens bound with the antigen-presenting molecule CD1d. A hallmark of NKT cells is their capacity to produce copious amounts of immunomodulatory cytokines upon antigenic stimulation, which endows these cells with potent immunoregulatory properties. Consequently, NKT cells have been implicated in regulating a wide variety of immune responses, including immune responses against autoantigens. In patients and mice with a variety of autoimmune diseases, numbers and functions of NKT cells are disturbed, but the relevance of these findings to the etiology of autoimmunity remains to be fully established. Nevertheless, in some mouse models of autoimmunity, NKT cell-deficiency exacerbates disease, suggesting that NKT cells play a role in suppressing autoimmunity. Conversely, specific activation of NKT cells with glycolipid antigens generally protects mice against the development of autoimmunity. Most of these studies have employed the potent sponge-derived NKT cell antigen α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer). However, α-GalCer treatment in mice was associated with detrimental side effects and treatment efficacy was influenced by a variety of parameters, resulting sometimes in disease exacerbation rather than protection. Recent efforts have focused on developing NKT cell agonists with superior treatment efficacy than α-GalCer. Collectively, these studies have identified NKT cells as attractive targets for treatment of human autoimmune diseases.

Keywords: Natural killer T cells; CD1d; glycolipids; α-galactosylceramide; autoimmunity; immunotherapy; immunomodulation

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/156652409787314534

Publication date: 2009-02-01

More about this publication?

• Current Molecular Medicine is an interdisciplinary journal focused on providing the readership with current and comprehensive reviews on fundamental molecular mechanisms of disease pathogenesis, the development of molecular-diagnosis and/or novel approaches to rational treatment. The reviews should be of significant interest to basic researchers and clinical investigators in molecular medicine. Periodically the journal will invite guest editors to devote an issue on a basic research area that shows promise to advance our understanding of the molecular mechanism(s) of a disease or has potential for clinical applications.

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