The CD19-Coupled CD21 is an Essential Receptor for B cell Activation
- 1Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO 80206, USA
- 2Department of Immunology and Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80216, USA
Abstract
It has been almost six decades since T cells and B cells were found to be the major players of adaptive immunity. The signal transduction cascades of T cell activation are well studied. However, it is not well appreciated or investigated how the binding of antigens to B cell receptors triggers the downstream signal transduction pathways. It is clear that MHCs with linear antigens presented by antigen-presenting cells (APCs), binding to TCR coupled with CD4/8, is enough to trigger the activation of T cells. For B cells, there are structures of BCRs similar to those of TCRs; however, there are no definitive structures similar to CD4/8 in B cells to help B cell activation. It remains a mystery how B cells are activated by native forms of antigens. Encouraged by our new illustration of the underlying mechanism of T cell activation, a simple model of B cell activation is derived: the CD19-coupled CD21 is an essential receptor for B cell activation.
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BibTeX
@article{zhang2026cd19coupled,
title = {{The CD19-Coupled CD21 is an Essential Receptor for B cell Activation}},
author = {Gongyi Zhang},
journal = {Journal of cellular signaling},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13730160/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - The CD19-Coupled CD21 is an Essential Receptor for B cell Activation
AU - Gongyi Zhang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
JO - Journal of cellular signaling
UR - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13730160/
AB - It has been almost six decades since T cells and B cells were found to be the major players of adaptive immunity. The signal transduction cascades of T cell activation are well studied. However, it is not well appreciated or investigated how the binding of antigens to B cell receptors triggers the downstream signal transduction pathways. It is clear that MHCs with linear antigens presented by antigen-presenting cells (APCs), binding to TCR coupled with CD4/8, is enough to trigger the activation of T cells. For B cells, there are structures of BCRs similar to those of TCRs; however, there are no definitive structures similar to CD4/8 in B cells to help B cell activation. It remains a mystery how B cells are activated by native forms of antigens. Encouraged by our new illustration of the underlying mechanism of T cell activation, a simple model of B cell activation is derived: the CD19-coupled CD21 is an essential receptor for B cell activation.
SN - 2692-0638
ER -