Artikel
Head and neck cancer triggers the internalization of TLR3 in natural killer cells
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Veröffentlicht: | 7. September 2006 |
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Gliederung
Text
Natural killer (NK) cells play a dominant role in the network of the innate immunity. Via TLR3 NK cells can be efficiently stimulated by dsRNA. In head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) NK cells seem to be strongly impaired but the true mechanisms of immune escape are not sufficiently known to date. It is obvious that the microenvironment of head and neck cancer results in strongly affected immune functions. NK cells play a major role in the local immune response of HNSCC. In this work we show that TLR3 is predominantly expressed on the cell surface of native NK cells and gets rapidly internalized in response to the HNSCC microenvironment. These findings represent a novel immune escape mechanism of head and neck cancer. The internalization of TLR3 in response to HNSCC could as well be observed in fibroblasts expressing heterologous TLR3 protein. Specific stimulation of NK cell TLR3 with its ligand Poly I:C impairs the internalization of this Toll-like receptor and leads to activated NK cells within the HNSCC microenvironment.