Natural killer cell specificity for viral infections

Abstract

Natural killer (NK) cells are lymphocytes that contribute to the early immune responses to viruses. NK cells are innate immune cells that do not express rearranged antigen receptors but sense their environment via receptors for pro-inflammatory cytokines, as well as via germline-encoded activating receptors specific for danger or pathogen signals. A group of such activating receptors is stochastically expressed by certain subsets within the NK cell compartment. After engagement of the cognate viral ligand, these receptors contribute to the specific activation and 'preferential' population expansion of defined NK cell subsets, which partially recapitulate some features of adaptive lymphocytes. In this Review, we discuss the numerous modes for the specific recognition of viral antigens and peptides by NK cells and the implications of this for the composition of the NK cell repertoire as well as for the the selection of viral variants.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): current status and future perspectives

“…NK cells are important immune cells necessary for defence against microbe-infected, stressed or malignant cells. Human NK cells lyse antibody-coated virus-infected cells via the process of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) [86] . In this way, NK cells are specific to almost all virus-infected cells.…”

Innate Immune Evasion by Human Respiratory RNA Viruses

“…To facilitate comparison between the respiratory viruses described here, known and arguably important innate immune evasion strategies are listed, and for each strategy it is discussed how each virus group exploits its own mechanism. Innate immune evasion obviously links to the innate immune responses that are known to be elicited by respiratory and other (RNA) viruses, and while this will be elaborated to a limited extent below, they have also been reviewed comprehensively in recent reviews by others [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

A novel antibody combination to identify KIR2DS2high natural killer cells in KIR2DL3/L2/S2 heterozygous donors

“…Natural killer (NK) cells are controlled by an array of activating and inhibitory receptors and are important for clearing cancer and virus‐infected cells . The killer cell immunoglobulin‐like receptors (KIRs) are expressed by NK cells as well as subsets of T cells and recognise the combination of HLA‐C with bound peptide.…”

“…antibody, KIR, KIR2DS2, NK cells Natural killer (NK) cells are controlled by an array of activating and inhibitory receptors and are important for clearing cancer and virus-infected cells. 1,2 The killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are expressed by NK cells as well as subsets of T cells and recognise the combination of HLA-C with bound peptide. The specificity of inhibitory KIRs have been well documented, as they detect HLA-C downregulation and are also modulated by changes in the peptide content of HLA-C. [3][4][5] In contrast, much less is known about the activating KIR, although they have been shown to play a significant role in viral infections and cancer.…”