Recognition of nectin-2 by the natural killer cell receptor T cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT)

Deuss, Felix A., Gully, Benjamin S., Rossjohn, Jamie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2020-7522 and Berry, Richard 2017. Recognition of nectin-2 by the natural killer cell receptor T cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT). Journal of Biological Chemistry 292 (27) , pp. 11413-11422. 10.1074/jbc.M117.786483

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Abstract

T cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT) is an inhibitory receptor expressed on the surface of natural killer (NK) cells. TIGIT recognizes nectin and nectin-like adhesion molecules and thus plays a critical role in the innate immune response to malignant transformation. Although the TIGIT nectin-like protein-5 (necl-5) interaction is well understood, how TIGIT engages nectin-2, a receptor that is broadly over-expressed in breast and ovarian cancer, remains unknown. Here, we show that TIGIT bound to the immunoglobulin domain of nectin-2 that is most distal from the membrane with an affinity of 6 μm, which was moderately lower than the affinity observed for the TIGIT/necl-5 interaction (3.2 μm). The TIGIT/nectin-2 binding disrupted pre-assembled nectin-2 oligomers, suggesting that receptor-ligand and ligand-ligand associations are mutually exclusive events. Indeed, the crystal structure of TIGIT bound to the first immunoglobulin domain of nectin-2 indicated that the receptor and ligand dock using the same molecular surface and a conserved “lock and key” binding motifs previously observed to mediate nectin/nectin homotypic interactions as well as TIGIT/necl-5 recognition. Using a mutagenesis approach, we dissected the energetic basis for the TIGIT/nectin-2 interaction and revealed that an “aromatic key” of nectin-2 is critical for this interaction, whereas variations in the lock were tolerated. Moreover, we found that the C-C′ loop of the ligand dictates the TIGIT binding hierarchy. Altogether, these findings broaden our understanding of nectin/nectin receptor interactions and have implications for better understanding the molecular basis for autoimmune disease and cancer.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Uncontrolled Keywords:	cell adhesion immunoglobulin fold innate immunity natural killer cells (NK cells) protein structure
Publisher:	American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
ISSN:	0021-9258
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	24 July 2017
Date of Acceptance:	17 May 2017
Last Modified:	23 Nov 2024 22:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/102853

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