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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2022 Mar 21;21(8):559–577. doi: 10.1038/s41573-022-00413-7

Table 1 |.

Human NK cell receptors and reported ligands

Receptors Functions Ligands
NKG2D activating MICA, MICB, ULBP1–6
DNAM-1 activating Nectin-2 (CD112), PVR (CD155)
FcγRIIIa (also known as CD16) activating Fc domains of IgG1 and IgG3
NKp80 activating AICL
NKG2C/CD94 activating HLA-E
SLAMF7 activating SLAMF7
KIR2DS1 activating Group 2 HLA-C
KIR2DS4 activating Some HLA-C, HLA-A*11, HLA-F
KIR3DS1 activating HLA-Bw4, HLA-F
TM1GD2 (CD28H) activating HHLA2
NKp30 (NCR3) activating B7-H6, HLA-B associated transcript 3 (BAT3)/ Bcl2-associated anthogene 6 (BAG6) (soluble/exosomes), galectin-3, heparan sulfate proteoglycans
NKp46 (NCR1) activating hemagglutinins, heparan sulfate proteoglycans, vimentin, complement factor P (CFP; properdin, soluble)
NKp44 (NCR2) activating 21spe-MLL5 (splice variant of MLL5), heparan sulfate proteoglycans, PDGF-DD (soluble), some HLA-DP, hemagglutinins, Nidogen-1, Dengue virus E protein
inhibitory PCNA, Nidogen-1 (soluble)
2B4 activating/ inhibitory CD48
KIR2DL1 inhibitory Group 2 HLA-C
KIR2DL2, KIR2DL3 inhibitory Group 1 HLA-C, some group 2 HLA-C, some HLA-B
KIR2DL5 inhibitory PVR
KIR3DL1 inhibitory HLA-Bw4 containing alleles of HLA-B and HLA-A
KIR3DL2 inhibitory some HLA-A (such as A*03 and A*11), HLA-F
KIR3DL3 inhibitory HHLA2
NKG2A/CD94 inhibitory HLA-E
NKR-P1A inhibitory CLEC2D (LLT1)
LILRB1 (ILT2, LIR1) inhibitory HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, HLA-G, HLA-F, S100A9
KLRG1 inhibitory E-cadherin, N- cadherin, and R-cadherin
CD96 (TACTILE) inhibitory Nectin-1 (CD111), PVR
TIGIT inhibitory Nectin-2, PVR
PVRIG inhibitory Nectin-2
TIM-3 inhibitory Galectin-9, CEACAM-1, phosphatidyl serine, HMGB1
LAG-3 inhibitory MHC class II, galectin-3, LSECtin (liver sinusoidal endothelial cell lectin), FGL1
PD-1 inhibitory PD-L1, PD-L2

Abbreviations: AICL, activation-induced C-type lectin; LAG-3; PVR, PD-1, PD-L1, PVRIG ; TIGIT; TIM-3