engleski

Peripheral blood NK cells from breast cancer patients are tumour-primed.

INTRODUCTION: Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths. Immune infiltration of breast tumors has been shown to be related to clinical outcome. Natural killer (NK) cells are effector lymphocytes involved in tumor immunosurveillance. In solid malignancies, tumorassociated NK cells in peripheral blood and tumor-infiltrating NK cells show altered phenotypes and are characterized by either anergy or reduced cytotoxicity. The goal of study was to investigate the immune activation profile of NK cells in order to gain a better understanding of pathological behaviour of different breast cancer subtypes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Immunohistology was used to detect presence and localization of CD56 and IL-15 in paraffin embedded normal and tumoral breast tissue sections. The distribution and frequency of NKG2A, NKG2C, NKp46, CD94, CD69 and CD107a, was investigated in population of NK cells in mononuclear cell suspensions from peripheral blood by flow cytometry. Cytolitic mediatorꞌs mRNA was detected by quantitative RT- qPCR. RESULTS: The percentage of IL15+ and CD56+ cells were significantly higher in triple negative breast cancer tissue. The frequency of NK cell activating receptors were decreased in breast cancer subtypes while inhibitory receptor NKG2A was increased. Decreased percentage of CD69+ /CD107a+ NK cell population indicated lower cellular function and cytotoxicity. Gene expression of cytolitic mediators at local level were up regulated in luminal B breast cancer. CONCLUSION: Modulation of NK cells activity in peripheral blood and tumor-infiltrating NK could be involved in pathogenesis of breast cancer. This highlights the importance of NK cells as a suitable target to modulate the immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment and try to trigger a more potent anti-tumor response. Acknowledgement: The experiments were financed by the grant No. 19-171498

breast cancer ; NK cells.

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