A newly discovered lipid ‘shield’ that prevents natural killer cells from being destroyed by their own deadly biological weapons also allows some cancer cells to evade an immune system attack, a study at Columbia University has found.
The findings, which may lead to new treatments for aggressive cancers, were published in the journal PLoS Biology.
Natural killer cells are efficient assassins that can eliminate up to six infected or cancer cells each day. The deadly immune cells grab onto their target and blast it with toxic proteins and enzymes that punch holes in the cell’s membrane. But these substances are also capable of destroying the natural killer cell’s membrane during the attack.
But how do natural killer cells survive releasing this blast of deadly substances? “I’ve been working on natural killer cells since the early 1990s, and every time I gave a talk about these cells, someone always asked that question,” said study leader and immunology expert Jordan Orange, MD, PhD, a professor at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. “And nobody really knew until now.”
Avoiding self-destruction
Yu Li, a graduate student working with Prof Orange to understand how natural killer cells work and co-author of the study, thought the answer might lie in the double layer of lipids that makes up the outer membranes of all cells. Compared with other cells, Li noticed, the membranes of natural killer cells looked more orderly and more densely packed with lipids when viewed under a microscope.
“There were a lot of hypotheses about why natural killer cells don’t kill themselves during their attack on other cells, but they all proposed there might be a magic, unknown protein protecting these cells,” Li says. But Li had doubts. “Based on biophysical considerations, I didn’t think a protein would be strong enough to protect the cells. When I looked at the cells, I thought of lipids.”
To test out his idea, he exposed the membranes to a compound that weakens the structure of the lipid layer. With less dense and less orderly membranes, the natural killer cells were unprotected from their own toxic blast—and perished along with their targets.
Shields up
To survive their own toxic blast natural killer cells reinforce their membranes immediately beforehand, Li found. The small granules holding the deadly substances move to the outer edge of the natural killer cell. As the granule unleashes its cargo into the space between the killer and target cells, its own unusually dense lipid membrane merges with and reinforces the natural killer cell membrane.
“In essence, Li found that the membrane turns into a blast shield,” Prof Orange says. “And the protection comes from the way the membrane’s lipids are arranged. When the lipids are arranged in a more orderly fashion, more lipids can be packed into the membrane. The toxic substances simply can’t find a way into the membrane,” Orange says.
Cancer cells steal the idea
Besides natural killer cells, some cancer cells have adopted this defence against natural killer cells’ attacks, Li and Prof Orange found. They may also use this as a defence from cytotoxic T cells, another immune cell that uses lipids for self-protection.
Li found that cells from an aggressive breast cancer known to be impervious to natural killer cells fortify their membranes during the attack. The reinforcement was vital for the cancer cells, Li discovered, because when he added a membrane compound that disrupts lipid packing, the cancer cells were rendered vulnerable.
“We don’t know yet if this is a general mechanism by which cancer cells resist natural killer cells,” Li said. “If it is generalisable, we can start to think of therapies that disrupt the tumor cell membrane and make it more susceptible to attack by the immune system.”
Source: Medical Xpress
