Hepatitis A virus cellular receptor2 (Havcr2) also named T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain containing-3 (Tim-3) was initially described as a T helper 1-specific cell surface protein, a member of Tim family implicated in the regulating process of adaptive and innate immune responses.
We demonstrated that HeLa cells, which are refractory to HAV infection, acquired a limited susceptibility to HAV infection after stably overexpressing human Tim-3 as confirmed by Western blot analysis using anti-Tim-3 antibody, but Tim-3-Fc fusion protein had no direct HAV-binding activity.
Hepatitis A virus receptor (HAVcr-1) and T-cell immunoglobulin- and mucin-domain-containing molecule (TIM)-3 were recently implicated as asthma susceptibility genes in the study of congenic mice.