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NKp46

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules

  • 81 Accesses

Synonyms

CD335

Historical Background

NK cell function is finely regulated by a series of inhibitory or activating receptors. The inhibitory receptors, specific for major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules, allow NK cells to discriminate between normal cells and cells that have lost the expression of MHC class I (e.g., tumor cells). In the absence of sufficient signaling by their HLA class I-specific inhibitory receptors, human natural killer (NK) cells become activated and display potent cytotoxicity against cells that are HLA class I negative. This indicates that the NK receptors responsible for the induction of cytotoxicity recognize ligands on target cells different from HLA class I molecules. These receptors have been termed natural cytotoxicity receptors (NCR) and include NKp46, together with NKp44 and NKp30 (Bottino et al. 2000). A direct correlation exists between the surface density of NCR and the ability of NK cells to kill various target cells (Sivori et al. 1999...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale (DI.ME.S.) and Centro di Eccellenza per lo studio dei meccanismi molecolari di comunicazione tra cellule: dalla ricerca di base alla clinica (CEBR), Università di Genova, Via G.B. Marsano n.10, Genoa, 16132, Italy

    Simona Sivori

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  1. Simona Sivori
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Correspondence to Simona Sivori .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Biological Science, Department of Molecular Science and Tech College of Natural Science, Suwon, Korea (Republic of)

    Sangdun Choi

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Sivori, S. (2016). NKp46. In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_564-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_564-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6438-9

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