Identification of CX3CR1. A chemotactic receptor for the human CX3C chemokine fractalkine and a fusion coreceptor for HIV-1.

Fractalkine is a multimodular human leukocyte chemoattractant protein and a member of the chemokine superfamily. Unlike other human chemokines, the chemokine domain of fractalkine has three amino acids between two conserved cysteines, referred to as the CX3C motif. Both plasma membrane-associated and shed forms of fractalkine have been identified. Here, we show that the recombinant 76-amino acid chemokine domain of fractalkine is a potent and highly specific chemotactic agonist at a human orphan receptor previously named V28 or alternatively CMKBRL1 (chemokine beta receptor-like 1), which was shown previously to be expressed in neutrophils, monocytes, T lymphocytes, and several solid organs, including brain. CMKBRL1/V28 also functioned with CD4 as a coreceptor for the envelope protein from a primary isolate of HIV-1 in a cell-cell fusion assay, and fusion was potently and specifically inhibited by fractalkine. Thus CMKBRL1/V28 is a specific receptor for fractalkine, and we propose to rename it CX3CR1 (CX3C chemokine receptor 1), according to an accepted nomenclature system.