Natural killer (NK) cells prevent virus production in cell culture

L. Baraz, E. Khazanov, R. Condiotti, M. Kotler, A. Nagler*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Natural killer (NK) cells (CD3-/CD16+/CD56+ lymphocytes) play an important role in early immune defense against viral infection, a fact which is of prime significance for heavily immunosuppressed patients after bone marrow transplantation. In this study we demonstrate that NK cells preferentially lyse human colon adenocarcinoma (Colo-205) tumor cells infected with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and vaccinia virus (VV) and autologous T cells infected with VV. This phenomenon was assessed by the viral infectious center (IC) method and compared with the results obtained by means of the standard 51Cr-release assay. Using the IC assay, we found that NK cells lyse virus infected cells at an early stage of infection, thereby preventing viral dissemination to neighboring cells. 51Cr-release assay verified by propidium iodide (PI) penetration showed that the early effects of NK mediated anti-viral activity are not the result of membrane damage. The effect of NK cells on HSV-1 infected Colo-205 cells appears to be independent of the level of expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules while the killing of autologous VV-infected T cells correlates with a reduction in MHC class I expression. Our results suggest that additional factors besides MHC play a role in the regulation of NK cell-mediated lysis of virus infected cells. This may be of clinical importance in patients who are heavily immunosuppressed after bone marrow transplantation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)179-189
Number of pages11
JournalBone Marrow Transplantation
Volume24
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1999

Keywords

  • Bone marrow transplantation
  • Herpes simplex virus
  • Immunosuppression
  • MHC class I molecules
  • Natural killer cells
  • Vaccinia virus

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