Endogenous Opiates, Natural Killer Cells And Psychosocial Factors In Early Breast Cancer Patients
Husband Alan J. in Behaviour and Immunity, 2019
For pychoimmunology to be relevant to cancer research, it is essential that tumours are able to elicit an immune response. Over the past few years, specific immunological reactions have been demonstrated in patients with tumours of all types although some classes of tumours are more weakly antigenic than others.12 The cytotoxic activity of Natural Killer Cells (NKC) has cells has attracted considerable attention. These lymphocytes are of uncertain lineage but are clearly controlkd by T cells and are known as ’stress’ lymphocytes. Several studies have demonstrated decreased NKCA in association with depression, loneliness and poor coping ability.13,14 Cytokines, like interferon-γ, are known to stimulate their activity. NK cells are capable of spontaneous cytotoxic activity against a wide range of tumours and, because they require no prior sensitisation to their targets and are capable of mounting a rapid response, it has been suggested that they provide the first line of defence against the emergence of tumours or their metastases.15 Higher levels of NKCA have been reported in breast cancer patients whose axillary lymph nodes were not invaded compared with patients with axillary spread of disease pointing to a role for NKCA in the prevention of metastases.6
Immune Reconstitution after Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
Richard K. Burt, Alberto M. Marmont in Stem Cell Therapy for Autoimmune Disease, 2019
NK cells which arise outside the thymus have no known etiologic role in autoimmune diseases such as SLE and, similar to HSCT for malignancies, rapidly recover after CD34+ selected autologous HSCT for SLE. Figure 9 shows a typical example of NK-cell regeneration in the course of autologous HSCT in a patient with refractory SLE. Frequency analysis of CD56+/CD16+ NK-cells among CD45+ lymphocytes often suggests a dramatic expansion of NK-cell percentage within one month after HSCT as shown in Figure 10. Although NK cells can represent more than 80% of CD45+ lymphocytes at 1 month after HSCT (Fig. 9), the absolute counts of the reappearing CD56+/CD16+ NK cells are normal one month after HSCT (Fig. 10). This emphasizes the importance of reporting not only percentage but also actual number of cells during immune reconstitution. Our results that NK-cells are among the first immune cells to recover after HSCT for SLE are in line with other types of non-autoimmune transplants.176,205-208
Psychoneuroimmunology, Stress and Infection
Herman Friedman, Thomas W. Klein, Andrea L. Friedman in Psychoneuroimmunology, Stress, and Infection, 2020
The results may also depend upon the particular immune parameters measured. The earlier studies focused on in vitro mitogen-stimulated proliferation assays which assess the responsivity (i.e., cell division measured by DNA synthesis) to lectin mitogens (such as concanavalin A or lipopolysaccharide, LPS). The interpretation of such assays is problematic, because the results are susceptible to a number of extraneous influences, and the assays are typically performed after several days of incubation in vitro separated from many normal physiological influences.20 The data are typically highly variable. More recently, natural killer (NK) cell activity has been studied. There is evidence that NK cells are involved in the rejection of tumors.21 Stressful treatments have been shown to suppress NK cell function in both animal and human studies.22,23 The major effectors for the stress-induced effects on NK cell function appears to be opiates23 and catecholamines via β-adrenergic receptors.24
Bioinformatics analysis reveals the landscape of immune cell infiltration and immune-related pathways participating in the progression of carotid atherosclerotic plaques
Published in Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, 2021
Liao Tan, Qian Xu, Ruizheng Shi, Guogang Zhang
NK cells are a critical part of the innate immune system. NK cells reside in peripheral lymphoid organs and develop independently of the thymus. NK cell activity may be activated through stimulation by lipid antigens presented by the MHC-I-like molecule CD1d [41]. Previous studies have suggested that the number of circulating NK cells in patients is related to serious atherosclerosis [42]. In addition, upregulation of NKG2C+ NK cells in peripheral blood is related to a higher risk of plaque rupture in patients with cytomegalovirus infections [43]. However, studies exploring the accurate function of NK cells in atherosclerosis have been complicated by the lack of reasonable animal models. LDLR-/- mice with defective NK cells generated by transferring bone marrow from transgenic mice overexpressing Ly49A under the control of a granzyme A promoter showed reduced atherosclerosis, showing the morbigenous role of NK cells in atherosclerosis [44]. Through the use of NK cell-depleting antibodies, we found that NK cells could aggravate atherosclerosis. Perforin and granzyme B-mediated by transferring NK cells deficient in perforin or granzyme B into lymphocyte-deficient ApoE-/- mice could be their main cytolytic mechanism [45]. Strangely, NK cell activation was decreased in advanced plaques, which may indicate that NK cells play a different role in advanced atherosclerotic plaques.
Immune dysregulation in primary immune thrombocytopenia patients
Published in Hematology, 2018
Jiakui Zhang, Qiuye Zhang, Yingwei Li, Lili Tao, Fan Wu, Yuanyuan Shen, Qianshan Tao, Xuanxuan Xu, Can Wu, Yanjie Ruan, Jiyu Wang, Jeffrey Wang, Yiping Wang, Zhimin Zhai
NK cells are a type of cytotoxic lymphocytes critical to the innate immune system. They can regulate B-cell immunoglobulin production and may have an influence on autoantibody production within autoimmune diseases. However, whether it participates in the pathogenesis of ITP and the associated mechanisms still need more studies. In our study, we found that NK cells were significantly decreased in active ITP patients than in controls. This was in agreement with Talaat et al. [16] and El-Rashedi et al. [10]. For ITP patients who had undergone therapy, Garcia-Suarez, et al. found that the activity of NK cells was correlated with therapy treatment, meaning that there was an increase in the number of NK cells in ITP patients who were effectively treated [17]. However, no significant difference was found in our study between ITP patients who were effective treated or not. This may due to the small sample size, we will do more studies in the future.
CAR-NK cells: a promising cellular immunotherapy in lymphoma
Published in Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, 2023
Shaghayegh Khanmohammadi, Nima Rezaei
NK cells identify malignant cells and destroy them by various mechanisms. Two main types of receptors, activating and inhibitory receptors, are found in the NK cells. Natural killer group 2 member D (NKG2D), natural killer protein (NKp) 46, NKp30, NKp44, and the activating form of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) (i.e. KIR-S and CD16) induce cytotoxicity and cytokine production in NK cells. The receptors mentioned above usually activate protein tyrosine kinase-dependent pathways [12]. The inhibitory KIR can suppress the activation of NK cells by binding to its ligand, MHC-I. Since normal cells express MHC-I, NK cells recognize them as ‘self’ and cause no harm. Malignant cells downregulate the expression of MHC-I, which leads to the sensitization of NK cells and their activation [13]. It is worth mentioning that the balance of engagement of activating and inhibitory receptors in NK cells affects cell function. In response to prolonged activation of NK cells, activating receptors are downregulated, checkpoint markers are upregulated, and cytokine production and cytotoxicity are reduced [14].