Forrest Calum, Gomes Ariane, Reeves Matthew, Male Victoria
Institute of Immunity & Transplantation, UCL, Royal Free Campus, London NW3 2PF, UK.
Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, Imperial College London, Chelsea and Westminster Campus, London SW10 9NH, UK.
Vaccines (Basel). 2020 Jul 20;8(3):394. doi: 10.3390/vaccines8030394.
Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphoid cells that recognize and eliminate virally-infected and cancerous cells. Members of the innate immune system are not usually considered to mediate immune memory, but over the past decade evidence has emerged that NK cells can do this in several contexts. Of these, the best understood and most widely accepted is the response to cytomegaloviruses, with strong evidence for memory to murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) and several lines of evidence suggesting that the same is likely to be true of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). The importance of NK cells in the context of HCMV infection is underscored by the armory of NK immune evasion genes encoded by HCMV aimed at subverting the NK cell immune response. As such, ongoing studies that have utilized HCMV to investigate NK cell diversity and function have proven instructive. Here, we discuss our current understanding of NK cell memory to viral infection with a focus on the response to cytomegaloviruses. We will then discuss the implications that this will have for the development of a vaccine against HCMV with particular emphasis on how a strategy that can harness the innate immune system and NK cells could be crucial for the development of a vaccine against this high-priority pathogen.
自然杀伤（NK）细胞是先天性淋巴细胞，可识别并清除病毒感染细胞和癌细胞。先天性免疫系统的成员通常不被认为介导免疫记忆，但在过去十年中，有证据表明NK细胞在多种情况下可以做到这一点。其中，对巨细胞病毒的反应理解最为充分且被广泛接受，有强有力的证据表明对鼠巨细胞病毒（MCMV）存在记忆，并且有几条证据表明人类巨细胞病毒（HCMV）可能也是如此。HCMV编码的旨在颠覆NK细胞免疫反应的NK免疫逃避基因库突出了NK细胞在HCMV感染背景下的重要性。因此，利用HCMV来研究NK细胞多样性和功能的正在进行的研究已证明具有指导意义。在这里，我们讨论目前对病毒感染的NK细胞记忆的理解，重点是对巨细胞病毒的反应。然后，我们将讨论这对开发针对HCMV的疫苗的影响，特别强调一种能够利用先天性免疫系统和NK细胞的策略对于开发针对这种高优先级病原体的疫苗可能至关重要。
