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Noncytotoxic Functions of NK Cells: Direct Pathogen Restriction and Assistance to Adaptive Immunity¹

Laboratory of Viral Immunobiology and Christopher H. Browne Center for Immunology and Immune Diseases, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065

Natural killer cells were named after their ability to mediate spontaneous cytotoxicity during innate immune responses. However, it has become clear in recent years that they play an equally important role in restricting infections and assisting the development of adaptive immune responses via their ability to produce cytokines. In humans, a dedicated NK cell subset primarily fulfills these later functions. In this review we discuss the noncytotoxic effector functions of NK cells and how they could be harnessed for immunotherapy and vaccine development.

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

¹ Our research was supported by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, the Alexandrine and Alexander Sinsheimer Foundation, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Dana Foundation’s Neuroimmunology program, National Cancer Institute Grants R01CA108609 and R01CA101741, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Grant RFP-NIH-NIAID-DAIDS-BAA-06–19, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (Grand Challenges in Global Health), the Starr Foundation (to C.M.), and an Institutional Clinical and Translational Science Award (to the Rockefeller University Hospital). T.S. is a recipient of a predoctoral fellowship from the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation.

² Current address: Neurogenetics Research Unit, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Corner Hawkesbury Road and Hainsworth Street, Level 3 Research Building, Locked Bag 4001, Westmead New South Wales 2145, Australia.

³ Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Christian Münz, Laboratory of Viral Immunobiology, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065. E-mail address: munzc{at}rockefeller.edu

⁴ Abbreviations used in this paper: DC, dendritic cell; poly(I:C), polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid; MCMV, murine CMV; SLO, secondary lymphoid organ.

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