Immune adjuvants aimed at initiating or re-activating host immunity against poorly immunogenic cancers represent a potential tool for immunotherapy. By employing the natural killer T (NKT) cell agonist α-galactosylceramide in a whole tumor cell therapeutic vaccine approach, we have achieved potent suppression of established hematological cancers upon the elicitation of innate and adaptive antit...

Vα14 natural killer T (NKT) cells produce large amounts of both IL-4 and IFN-γ upon stimulation with a ligend, α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer), and play a crucial role in various immune responses, including allergic reactions. Interestingly, Vα14 NKT cells are not essential for the induction of specific IgE response but they instead tend to induce suppression of specific IgE upon α-GalCer activ...

Natural killer (NK) cell function is regulated by NK cell receptors that bind classical MHC class I molecules or their structural relatives. The latter group includes self-ligands (MICA, RAE-I, H-60), as well as ligands encoded by viruses (UL18, m155, m157). Two distinct families of NK receptors have been identified: the immunoglobulin-like family (KIRs, LIRs) and the C-type lectin-like family ...

Natural killer (NK) cells express killer cell inhibitory receptors (KIRs) that recognize polymorphic class I MHC molecules. In the present study, we analyze the modulatory effect of IL-2 alone or a combination of IL-12 with IL-18 on surface expression of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors KIR2DL1, KIR2DL2, and KIR3DL2 in NK cells. Thus, it was found that IL-2 causes a significant increas...

Thirty-two natural killer (NK) and cytotoxic T-cell lymphomas and 14 noncytotoxic nodal T-cell lymphoma controls were immunostained with the use of monoclonal antibodies reactive against NK-cell receptor (NKR) molecules (CD94, NKG2A, p58.2, p58.1, p140, p70, p50.3). All NK-cell lymphomas (4 nasal/oral and 1 intestinal) expressed at least 1 NKR, the CD94/NKG2A complex. Two were positive for 1 or...

Natural killer (NK) cells play a critical role in the host defense against herpesviruses. Although herpesviruses are ubiquitous in human populations, only a minority of people experience severe recurrent infections. We hypothesize that uncharacterized NK cell functional deficits predispose individuals to more significant or frequent herpesvirus infections and reactivations. To investigate this ...

Chemokines play a fundamental role in lymphocyte development, mainly attributable to the control of the correct localization in the proper microenvironments of cells undergoing maturation. Natural killer (NK) cell development occurs in the bone marrow (BM) where their localization is regulated by the balance of chemokine function in cell retention into tissues and mobilization into circulation....

PURPOSE Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells might play an important role in asthma pathogenesis in humans. Our previous study found no difference in the number of blood iNKT cells between asthma patients and controls. However, few studies have examined the function of blood iNKT cells in human asthma. METHODS Twenty asthma patients and eight controls were included in this study. Blood iNK...

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the treatment of choice for many hematologic diseases, such as multiple myeloma, bone marrow aplasia and leukemia. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) compatibility is an important tool to prevent post-transplant complications such as graft rejection and graft-versus-host disease, but the high rates of relapse limit the survival of transplant patients. Natur...