Natural Killer Triggering Receptor (NKTR)

NKTR encodes a membrane-anchored protein with a hydrophobic amino terminal domain and a cyclophilin-like PPIase domain. It is present on the surface of natural killer cells and facilitates their binding to targets. Its expression is regulated by IL2 activation of the cells.LGLs are a subpopulation of white blood cells that have the ability to kill target tumor cells by an MHC-independent mechanism. The protein product of the NKTR gene is present on the surface of LGLs and facilitates their binding to tumor targets. The gene codes for a protein of 150,000 Da, with a unique amino acid structure consisting of a 58-amino acid hydrophobic amino terminus followed by a cyclophilin-related domain. No other known mammalian receptor gene has been found to contain this strong identity to the cyclophilin protein in an external domain.