NK Cells and Their Role in Disease and Cancer Treatment

Natural killer (NK) cells are a crucial part of the human immune system. They play an important role in fighting and controlling viral infections as well as killing cells that have transformed into tumors. NK cells are involved in the pathogenesis of a number of diseases and in this thesis we will explore NK cells and their role in disease and cancer treatment. First, we will discuss antibody dependent cell mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) and how deficiencies in ADCC play a role in human disease. We will also cover improvements we have made to quantifying and measuring ADCC through an improved chromium 51 assay. Then we will look at chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and the role innate immunity and impairment of NK cells function contribute to the disease. We report the results of our research on patients with CFS and compare their innate immunity to their healthy family members. Finally, we will discuss NK cells and their role in cancer treatment as well as ongoing work involving development of an "off the shelf" NK cell therapy for cancer treatment through CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing and deletion of MHC I. The last chapter provides my insights into potential research directions for the study of human NK cells.

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctorate Degree

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Sung, Alexander Phillip

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hudig, Dorothy

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Verma, Subhash
• Hunter, Kenneth
• Korver, Gretchen
• Smith-Gagen, Julie

• ADCC
• cancer
• CFS
• NK

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 United States

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11714/8156

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarwolf.unr.edu:11714/8156