Immunology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10065.
Department of Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York 10065.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2018 Oct 1;10(10):a029538. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a029538.
Immunological memory is an evolutionary adaptation of the vertebrate immune system that protects the host from repeated pathogen infection. T and B cells possess the specificity and longevity required to generate immune memory, whereas natural killer (NK) cells make up a component of the immune system that was not thought to possess these features. However, much evidence from the last decade has challenged this dogma. The investigators were asked to address the following questions: Is there NK cell memory? And can NK cell memory be harnessed for vaccination? Thus, this article explores the recent literature showing immune memory in NK cells. Along with highlighting these studies, we speculate how NK cell memory can be harnessed in immunization strategies against infectious diseases and cancer.
免疫记忆是脊椎动物免疫系统的一种进化适应，可保护宿主免受反复的病原体感染。T 和 B 细胞具有产生免疫记忆所需的特异性和持久性，而自然杀伤 (NK) 细胞构成了免疫系统的一个组成部分，人们曾认为 NK 细胞不具有这些特征。然而，过去十年中的大量证据对这一教条提出了挑战。研究人员被要求回答以下问题：NK 细胞是否具有记忆功能？并且 NK 细胞记忆可以被用于疫苗接种吗？因此，本文探讨了最近表明 NK 细胞具有免疫记忆的文献。在强调这些研究的同时，我们推测如何在针对传染病和癌症的免疫策略中利用 NK 细胞记忆。
