Abstract
Tumours develop in vertebrate organisms endowed with immune systems that are potentially able to eradicate them. Nevertheless, our ever-increasing understanding of the complex interactions between lymphocytes and tumour cells fuels the long-standing hope of developing efficient immunotherapies against cancer. This review focuses on a versatile family of proteins, the major histocompatibility complex class Ib, which has been recently implicated in both the establishment of anti-tumour immune responses and in tumour immune response evasion. We focus on a subset of class Ib proteins, human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-G, Qa-2, CD1d and NKG2D ligands, which bind to either stimulatory or inhibitory receptors expressed on T, natural killer (NK) and NKT lymphocytes, and thereby modulate their anti-tumour activity.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
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Review
MeSH terms
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Animals
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Antigen Presentation
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Antigens, CD1 / immunology
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Antigens, CD1d
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HLA Antigens / immunology*
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HLA-G Antigens
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Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / immunology*
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Humans
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Killer Cells, Natural / immunology
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Lipids / immunology
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Major Histocompatibility Complex*
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Monitoring, Immunologic*
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NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily K
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Neoplasms / immunology*
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Peptides / immunology
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Receptors, Immunologic / immunology
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Receptors, Natural Killer Cell
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T-Lymphocytes / immunology
Substances
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Antigens, CD1
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Antigens, CD1d
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CD1D protein, human
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HLA Antigens
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HLA-G Antigens
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Histocompatibility Antigens Class I
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KLRK1 protein, human
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Lipids
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MHC Ib Qa-2 antigen
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NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily K
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Peptides
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Receptors, Immunologic
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Receptors, Natural Killer Cell