Olson Rich, Dulac Catherine, Bjorkman Pamela J
Division of Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2006 Jun;16(3):351-7. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2006.05.007. Epub 2006 May 15.
Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules have been implicated in a number of non-immune roles in the central nervous system, particularly in synaptic development and plasticity. The discovery of M10 (50% sequence identity to classical MHC molecules) proteins expressed in the vomeronasal organ adds to the list of non-traditional roles of MHC homologs. M10 molecules associate with the V2R class of vomeronasal receptors, a family of G-protein coupled receptors thought to function as pheromone receptors. Recent studies showing that classical MHC-binding peptides activate V2R-expressing neurons offer tempting clues that M10s might participate directly in the recognition of pheromone ligands, but M10 proteins do not bind to these peptides with significant affinity. Instead of presenting MHC-binding peptides, M10s might function as molecular chaperones to V2R receptors or more generally as modulators of neuronal function, as demonstrated elsewhere in the brain for classical MHC molecules.
主要组织相容性复合体（MHC）分子在中枢神经系统中具有多种非免疫作用，尤其是在突触发育和可塑性方面。在犁鼻器中表达的M10蛋白（与经典MHC分子有50%的序列同一性）的发现，进一步增加了MHC同源物的非传统作用列表。M10分子与犁鼻器受体的V2R类相关联，V2R是一类G蛋白偶联受体，被认为可作为信息素受体发挥作用。最近的研究表明，经典的MHC结合肽可激活表达V2R的神经元，这提示M10可能直接参与信息素配体的识别，但M10蛋白与这些肽的结合亲和力并不显著。M10可能不是呈递MHC结合肽，而是作为V2R受体的分子伴侣发挥作用，或者更普遍地作为神经元功能的调节剂，就像经典MHC分子在大脑其他部位所表现的那样。
