Medical Immunology Commons^™

Natural Killer Cells In Patients With Severe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Ekua Brenu, Sharni Hardcastle, Gunn Atkinson, Mieke Van Driel, Sanne Kreijkamp-Kaspers, Kevin Ashton, Don Staines, Sonja Marshall-Gradisnik

Kevin Ashton

Maintenance of health and physiological homeostasis is a synergistic process involving tight regulation of proteins, transcription factors and other molecular processes. The immune system consists of innate and adaptive immune cells that are required to sustain immunity. The presence of pathogens and tumour cells activates innate immune cells, in particular Natural Killer (NK) cells. Stochastic expression of NK receptors activates either inhibitory or activating signals and results in cytokine production and activation of pathways that result in apoptosis of target cells. Thus, NK cells are a necessary component of the immunological process and aberrations in their functional processes, including equivocal …