[Effects of NK Cell] What are NK cells that selectively kill infected cells?

Hello, I am Jinny, a pharmacist.

Just like humans, every cell in our body has a unique ID card.

The cell's registration card is an identifier called MHC. Therefore, normal cells and abnormal cells have different identifiers. NK cells are very important immune cells in the human body that identify and kill abnormal cells.

The correct name is Natural Killer Cell. These cells find only infected cells, attach to the cell surface, and kill the cells.

When a cell becomes infected, the DNA within the cell is transformed and loses its function.

Cells with altered DNA become vulnerable to pathogens and reach a point where they synthesize DNA that creates pathogens. When that happens, these infected cells turn into factories that continuously produce germs.

This is why NK cells are important. NK cells travel throughout our body to find only infected cells and induce their death. It attaches to abnormal cells and injects water and salt, disrupting the cell balance and causing cell necrosis.

NK cells are a kind of immune police officer.

It finds virus-infected cells and tumor cells, tears the cell membrane, creates a hole, and injects water and salt to induce cell death.

What is more surprising is that research has shown that NK cells attack cancer cells and prevent cancer cell development, proliferation, and metastasis. This means that NK cells suppress tumor initiating cells, which are the stage before cancer cells differentiate.

The usefulness of NK cells is being proven through various studies. Therefore, research efforts to increase the activity of NK cells or the number of NK cells in the body are gaining momentum.

Recently, as the number of hospitals that can test the activity of NK cells in the body has increased, activity tests are being actively conducted on patients with various cancers and adult diseases.

Today, we briefly looked at the functions of NK cells, the immune police officers that live in our bodies.

I hope you have a healthy day both physically and mentally. This was Jinny.