Natural killer cells: detectors of stress

Natural killer (NK) cells are a key component of the innate immune system, as they are able to detect microbe-infected cells, tumors as well as allogeneic cells, without specific sensitization. NK cell effector functions (cytotoxicity, cytokine secretion) are regulated by a wide array of inhibitory and activating receptors. MHC class I molecules are the ligands of most inhibitory receptors, while activating receptors recognize either pathogen-encoded molecules, or self-proteins whose expression is up-regulated upon microbial infection or tumor development. Upon integration of these negative and positive signals, Natural Killer cells can discriminate between healthy "self" (tolerance) and autologous cells undergoing different types of cellular stress or allogeneic cells (immunosurveillance). The knowledge of the different mechanisms of target cell recognition is thus crucial to dissect NK cell involvement in homeostatic and disease conditions as well as to develop novel alternative therapeutic approaches based on NK cell manipulation.