August 18, 2014

Image Caption: Melbourne researchers have revealed the critical importance of highly specialized immune cells, called natural killer cells, in killing melanoma cells that have spread to the lungs. These natural killer cells could be harnessed to hunt down and kill cancers that have spread in the body. Dr. Nick Huntington (left), Rebecca Delconte (center) and Dr. Priyanka Sathe led the team from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia. Credit: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Melbourne researchers have revealed the critical importance of highly specialized immune cells, called natural killer cells, in killing melanoma cells that have spread to the lungs. These natural killer cells could be harnessed to hunt down and kill cancers that have spread in the body.

The team, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, also found natural killer cells were critical to the bodys rejection of donor bone marrow transplants and in the runaway immune response during toxic shock syndrome.

The discoveries came after the team showed that a protein called MCL-1 was crucial for survival of natural killer cells, in research published today in the journal Nature Communications. The discovery will help to determine how natural killer cells can be manipulated to fight cancers and other disorders.

Dr Nick Huntington, Dr Priyanka Sathe and Ms Rebecca Delconte from the Molecular Immunology division said MCL-1 could be a target for boosting or depleting natural killer cell populations to treat disease. Natural killer cells are immune predators, scouring the body in search of foreign invaders such as viruses, and sensing changes in our own cells that are associated with cancer.

Dr Huntington said the team showed natural killer cells were needed to fight off invading tumor cells that had spread past the original cancer site.

We discovered MCL-1 is absolutely essential for keeping natural killer cells alive, Dr Huntington said. Without natural killer cells, the body was unable to destroy melanoma metastases that had spread throughout the body, and the cancers overwhelmed the lungs.

Knowing how important natural killer cells are for detecting and destroying cancer cells as they spread suggests they would be a good target for boosting immune defenses to treat cancer.

See the article here:
Specialized Immune Cells Could Stop Cancer Spread

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