Department of Medical Microbiology and Radboud Center for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Front Immunol. 2019 Dec 10;10:2864. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02864. eCollection 2019.
Natural killer (NK) cells are known to be activated during malaria infection, exhibiting both cytokine production and cytotoxic functions. However, NK cells are heterogeneous in their expression of surface activatory and inhibitory receptors which may influence their response to malaria parasites. Here, we studied the surface marker profile and activation dynamics of NK cells during a Controlled Human Malaria Infection in 12 healthy volunteers. Although there was significant inter-patient variability in timing and magnitude of NK cell activation, we found a consistent and strong increase in expression of the activatory receptor NKp30. Moreover, high baseline NKp30 expression was associated with NK cell activation at lower parasite densities. Our data suggest that NKp30 expression may influence the NK cell response to , explaining inter-patient heterogeneity and suggesting a functional role for this receptor in malaria.
自然杀伤 (NK) 细胞在疟疾感染期间被激活，表现出细胞因子产生和细胞毒性功能。然而，NK 细胞在其表面激活和抑制受体的表达上存在异质性，这可能影响它们对疟原虫的反应。在这里，我们在 12 名健康志愿者中研究了受控人类疟疾感染期间 NK 细胞的表面标志物特征和激活动力学。尽管 NK 细胞激活的时间和幅度存在显著的个体间变异性，但我们发现激活受体 NKp30 的表达一致且显著增加。此外，高水平的基线 NKp30 表达与较低寄生虫密度下的 NK 细胞激活相关。我们的数据表明，NKp30 的表达可能影响 NK 细胞对疟疾的反应，解释了个体间的异质性，并提示该受体在疟疾中具有功能作用。
