Howell Jessica, Visvanathan Kumar
Liver Transplant Unit, Austin Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
Antivir Ther. 2013;18(7):853-65. doi: 10.3851/IMP2565. Epub 2013 Apr 4.
HCV infection is an exponentially growing health burden worldwide, with an estimated 170 million people infected. Although therapies for HCV are continually improving, there remain a considerable proportion of patients who do not achieve viral eradication and develop liver disease. Natural killer (NK) cells are crucial for T-cell activation and are one of the first-line sentinel cell responders to viral infection. A recent explosion in studies exploring the role of NK cells in HCV infection has yielded important mechanistic information and intriguing potential therapeutic options for HCV infection. This review provides a general overview of normal NK cell function and outlines some of the important mechanisms characterizing the immune interplay between NK cells and HCV infection.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染是全球范围内呈指数增长的健康负担，估计有1.7亿人受到感染。尽管针对HCV的治疗方法在不断改进，但仍有相当一部分患者无法实现病毒清除并发展为肝病。自然杀伤（NK）细胞对T细胞活化至关重要，是病毒感染的一线哨兵细胞应答者之一。最近，探索NK细胞在HCV感染中作用的研究激增，产生了重要的机制信息以及针对HCV感染的有趣潜在治疗选择。本综述概述了正常NK细胞功能，并概述了一些表征NK细胞与HCV感染之间免疫相互作用的重要机制。
