Natural killer cell dynamic profile is associated with treatment outcome in patients with chronic HCV infection

Lack of Siglec-7 expression identifies a dysfunctional natural killer cell subset associated with liver inflammation and fibrosis in chronic HCV infection

“…Two studies29 30 consistently showed that NK Siglec-7 expression decreased during treatment and remained low until end of treatment. This was associated with NK cell activation as shown by increased expression of the CD69 early activation antigen.…”

Contribution of genes for killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) to the susceptibility to chronic hepatitis C virus infection and to viremia

“…Recently, a subpopulation of highly differentiated NK cells of CD56 dim CD57 + NKG2C + phenotype, expressing self-HLA-class-Ispecific inhibitory KIRs, was described to expand in chronically HCV-infected patients [34,35], but only if they were human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)-positive [36]. This latter finding is not surprising, as NK cells with this phenotype were expanding also in response to HCMV infection alone, without HCV co-infection [37,38].…”

Pathogenesis of chronic viral hepatitis: differential roles of T cells and NK cells

“…Specifically, treatment responders exhibit greater levels of NK cell degranulation than nonresponders for at least the first 12 weeks of IFN-based therapy 88 , the period that defines an early virological response. Patients with a sustained virological response also display enhanced NK cytotoxicity 92 . Thus, NK cell responses can be used as an indicator of a patient’s IFN responsiveness, which along with the expression level of ISGs 93–95 and IFNL SNPs 96–99 predict the treatment response.…”