How to bolster ‘natural killer’ cells against flu

Our immune systems are equipped with “natural killer” (NK) cells that recognize and eliminate influenza-virus-infected cells in order to keep the virus from spreading.

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If NK cells always worked perfectly, nobody would get sick with the flu. Obviously, something can go wrong because many people do get flu. Israeli doctoral student Yotam Bar-On tackled this mystery, and his findings could lead to a whole new way of treating this sometimes deadly viral infection. “A few years ago, my supervisor, Prof. Ofer Mandelboim, discovered that NK cells are important in fighting flu infection,” Bar-On tells ISRAEL21c. “However, when we infected mice with influenza virus, we found that the virus can manipulate the NK cells and evade getting killed. The NK function is not 100 percent because the influenza fights back.” In their lab at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar-On and Mandelboim were able to identify the weapon that the virus uses to battle the body’s natural killers: It’s a protein called neuraminidase, and it effectively neutralizes receptors on the NK cells that are responsible for detecting influenza-virus-infected cells. More...

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