Papers describing for the first time that NKT are activated by glycosphingolipid and diacylglycerol of bacterial origin.

Link

Natural killer T cells recognize diacylglycerol antigens from pathogenic bacteria.

Kinjo Y, Tupin E, Wu D, Fujio M, Garcia-Navarro R, Benhnia MR, Zajonc DM, Ben-Menachem G, Ainge GD, Painter GF, Khurana A, Hoebe K, Behar SM, Beutler B, Wilson IA, Tsuji M, Sellati TJ, Wong CH, Kronenberg M. Nat Immunol. 2006 Sep;7(9):978-86.

Link

Exogenous and endogenous glycolipid antigens activate NKT cells during microbial infections.

Mattner J, Debord KL, Ismail N, Goff RD, Cantu C 3rd, Zhou D, Saint-Mezard P, Wang V, Gao Y, Yin N, Hoebe K, Schneewind O, Walker D, Beutler B, Teyton L, Savage PB, Bendelac A. Nature. 2005 Mar 24;434(7032):525-9

Link

Cell wall glycosphingolipids of Sphingomonas paucimobilis are CD1d-specific ligands for NKT cells.

Sriram V, Du W, Gervay-Hague J, Brutkiewicz RR. Eur J Immunol. 2005 Jun;35(6):1692-701.

Papers describing that co injection of aGalCer with antigen proteins increases antigen specific B and T cell response

Link

NKT cells enhance CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses to soluble antigen in vivo through direct interaction with dendritic cells.

Hermans IF, Silk JD, Gileadi U, Salio M, Mathew B, Ritter G, Schmidt R, Harris AL, Old L, Cerundolo V. J Immunol. 2003 Nov 15;171(10):5140-7.

Link

Natural killer T cell ligand alpha-galactosylceramide enhances protective immunity induced by malaria vaccines.

Gonzalez-Aseguinolaza G, Van Kaer L, Bergmann CC, Wilson JM, Schmieg J, Kronenberg M, Nakayama T, Taniguchi M, Koezuka Y, Tsuji M. J Exp Med. 2002 Mar 4;195(5):617-24.

Link

Activation of natural killer T cells by alpha-galactosylceramide rapidly induces the full maturation of dendritic cells in vivo and thereby acts as an adjuvant for combined CD4 and CD8 T cell immunity to a coadministered protein.

Fujii S, Shimizu K, Smith C, Bonifaz L, Steinman RM. J Exp Med. 2003 Jul 21;198(2):267-79.

Papers describing the unique model of Ag recognition by NKT cell TCR

CD1d-lipid-antigen recognition by the semi-invariant NKT T-cell receptor.

Borg NA, Wun KS, Kjer-Nielsen L, Wilce MC, Pellicci DG, Koh R, Besra GS, Bharadwaj M, Godfrey DI, McCluskey J, Rossjohn J. Nature. 2007 Jul 5;448(7149):44-9.

A minimal binding footprint on CD1d-glycolipid is a basis for selection of the unique human NKT TCR.

Wun KS, Borg NA, Kjer-Nielsen L, Beddoe T, Koh R, Richardson SK, Thakur M, Howell AR, Scott-Browne JP, Gapin L, Godfrey DI, McCluskey J, Rossjohn J.J Exp Med. 2008 Apr 14;205(4):939-49.

Papers describing the clinical trial based on NKT cell or NKT cell agonist

Combination therapy of in vitro-expanded natural killer T cells and alpha-galactosylceramide-pulsed antigen-presenting cells in patients with recurrent head and neck carcinoma.

Kunii N, Horiguchi S, Motohashi S, Yamamoto H, Ueno N, Yamamoto S, Sakurai D, Taniguchi M, Nakayama T, Okamoto Y. Cancer Sci. 2009 Jun;100(6):1092-8

Alpha-galactosylceramide in chronic hepatitis B infection: results from a randomized placebo-controlled Phase I/II trial.

Woltman AM, Ter Borg MJ, Binda RS, Sprengers D, von Blomberg BM, Scheper RJ, Hayashi K, Nishi N, Boonstra A, van der Molen R, Janssen HL.Antivir Ther. 2009;14(6):809-18.

Phase I study of alpha-galactosylceramide-pulsed antigen presenting cells administration to the nasal submucosa in unresectable or recurrent head and neck cancer.

Uchida T, Horiguchi S, Tanaka Y, Yamamoto H, Kunii N, Motohashi S, Taniguchi M, Nakayama T, Okamoto Y. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2008 Mar;57(3):337-45.

Sustained expansion of NKT cells and antigen-specific T cells after injection of alpha-galactosyl-ceramide loaded mature dendritic cells in cancer patients.

Chang DH, Osman K, Connolly J, Kukreja A, Krasovsky J, Pack M, Hutchinson A, Geller M, Liu N, Annable R, Shay J, Kirchhoff K, Nishi N, Ando Y, Hayashi K, Hassoun H, Steinman RM, Dhodapkar MV. J Exp Med. 2005 May 2;201(9):1503-17

A phase I study of the natural killer T-cell ligand alpha-galactosylceramide (KRN7000) in patients with solid tumors.

Giaccone G, Punt CJ, Ando Y, Ruijter R, Nishi N, Peters M, von Blomberg BM, Scheper RJ, van der Vliet HJ, van den Eertwegh AJ, Roelvink M, Beijnen J, Zwierzina H, Pinedo HM. Clin Cancer Res. 2002 Dec;8(12):3702-9.

Reviews

Clinical development of a novel CD1d-binding NKT cell ligand as a vaccine adjuvant.

Padte NN, Li X, Tsuji M, Vasan S. Clin Immunol. 2010 Dec 24.

Adjuvant activity mediated by iNKT cells.

Fujii S, Motohashi S, Shimizu K, Nakayama T, Yoshiga Y, Taniguchi M. Semin Immunol. 2010 Apr;22(2):97-102.

Type I natural killer T cells: naturally born for fighting.

Tan JQ, Xiao W, Wang L, He YL. Acta Pharmacol Sin. 2010 Sep;31(9):1123-32.

Harnessing invariant NKT cells in vaccination strategies.

Cerundolo V, Silk JD, Masri SH, Salio M. Nat Rev Immunol. 2009 Jan;9(1):28-38.

The biology of NKT cells.

Bendelac A, Savage PB, Teyton L. Annu Rev Immunol. 2007;25:297-336.

Glycolipids for natural killer T cells.

Savage PB, Teyton L, Bendelac A. Chem Soc Rev. 2006 Sep;35(9):771-9.