A role for pre-mNK cells in tumor progression

Carolyn Rosinsky; Paul Andrew Antony

doi:10.1186/s40425-016-0120-6

A role for pre-mNK cells in tumor progression

J Immunother Cancer. 2016 Mar 15:4:16. doi: 10.1186/s40425-016-0120-6. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Carolyn Rosinsky¹, Paul Andrew Antony²

Affiliations

¹ Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201 USA ; Department of Pathology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201 USA.
² Department of Pathology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201 USA ; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 10 South Pine Street, 734D MSTF, Baltimore, MD 21201 USA ; Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Program, University of Maryland Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD 21201 USA.

Abstract

The innate and adaptive immune systems have evolved together to fight infection and cancerous tissues. The innate immune system emerges first with the adaptive immune system following, both ostensibly being bridged by dendritic cells (DC). Recently cells have emerged that possess characteristics of both innate and adaptive immune cell qualities, termed interferon-producing killer dendritic cells (IKDCs). These cells have an indistinct origin that is not well understood. They appear to have more NK cell attributes than DC but purportedly can regulate the immune system similar to immunoregulatory NK cells. Because of this, they have been renamed pre-mNK cells (pre-mature NK cells). We argue in this commentary that pre-mNK cells may contribute to cancer recurrence.

Keywords: CD4+ T cells; IKDC; Melanoma; PD-L1; Pre-mNK cells.