Publications by authors named "Nicholas A Maskalenko"
Article Synopsis
- - Many monoclonal antibody therapies for tumors work by activating natural killer (NK) cells through a receptor called CD16, enhancing the immune response against cancer cells.
- - A specific variant of CD16 called L48-H improves NK cell effectiveness, allowing them to kill tumor cells more efficiently by increasing their binding affinity and speeding up the engagement with the cancer cells.
- - The L48-H variant leads to better communication (or "immunological synapse") between NK cells and tumor cells, resulting in stronger signaling and faster response, making it a promising enhancement for cancer treatments.
Natural killer (NK) cells have crucial roles in the innate immunosurveillance of cancer and viral infections. They are 'first responders' that can spontaneously recognize abnormal cells in the body, rapidly eliminate them through focused cytotoxicity mechanisms and potently produce pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines that recruit and activate other immune cells to initiate an adaptive response. From the initial discovery of the diverse cell surface receptors on NK cells to the characterization of regulatory events that control their function, our understanding of the basic biology of NK cells has improved dramatically in the past three decades.
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