Natural killer cells not only fight cancer! Can they also suppress Parkinson's disease?
Natural killer cells (NK cells) play an important role in immune defense. Although it has no antigen-specific receptors on its surface, there are many other membrane proteins that receive stimuli from target cells and are responsible for non-specific defense with their activity, killing tumor cells and virus-infected cells.
A team of researchers at the University of Georgia's Center for Regenerative Biosciences recently found that NK cells can prevent a range of cellular changes in mice with Parkinson's disease, and stop its development and progression. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
This study is the first to examine the association between NK cells and Parkinson's disease, and although there is only scientific evidence from animal studies, the study's author, Assistant Professor Jae Kyung (Jamise) Lee, remains optimistic. She mentioned that a recent human trial of glioblastoma (brain cancer) showed that NK cells help eliminate tumor cells and release related messaging to support the immune system's defenses.
The study demonstrated that NK cells not only act as effective scavengers to attack invaders, but also regulate and inhibit inflammation and α-synuclein aggregation in brain tissue to slow down Parkinson's disease. In mouse models, the number and function of NK cells decreases with aging, and the nerves and brains of mice are damaged, indicating that without NK cells, the nervous system is vulnerable to attack.
Parkinson's is no longer considered a brain-specific disease, and more and more research is finding a functional link between the immune system and the central nervous system. The team found that in chronic inflammatory conditions such as Parkinson's disease, the blood brain barrier (BBB) is disrupted and immune cells can enter the brain. Therefore, understanding how peripheral organs are patrolled by NK cells in search of infectious diseases, even in the absence of disease, may lead to a cure for Parkinson's disease.
Original Source: https://geneonline.news/index.php/2020/03/19/nature-killer-cell-inhibit-parkinson/?doing_wp_cron=1585213045.7213320732116699218750