L. Osborn et al., AMINO-ACID-RESIDUES REQUIRED FOR BINDING OF LYMPHOCYTE FUNCTION-ASSOCIATED ANTIGEN-3 (CD58) TO ITS COUNTER-RECEPTOR CD2, The Journal of experimental medicine, 181(1), 1995, pp. 429-434
Efficient activation and regulation of the cellular immune response re
quires engagement of T cell accessory molecules as well as the antigen
-specific T cell receptor. The lymphocyte function-associated antigen
(LFA) 3 (CD58)/CD2 accessory pathway, one of the first discovered, has
been extensively characterized in terms of structure and function of
the CD2 molecule, which is present on all T lymphocytes and natural ki
ller cells of the human immune system. The binding site of human CD2 f
or LFA-3 has been localized to two epitopes on one face of the first i
mmunoglobulin (Ig)-like domain of this two-domain, Ig superfamily mole
cule. Human LFA-3 is genetically linked and is 21% identical in amino
acid sequence to CD2, suggesting that this adhesive pair may have evol
ved from a single ancestral molecule. We have aligned the amino acid s
equences of LFA-3 and CD2 and mutagenized selected amino acids in the
first domain of LFA-3 that are analogous to those implicated in the bi
nding site of CD2. The data show that K30 and K34, in the predicted C-
C' loop, and D84, in the predicted F-G loop of LFA-3, are involved in
binding to CD2, suggesting that two complementary sites on one face of
the first domain of each molecule bind to each other.