Natural killer receptor ligand expression on acute myeloid leukemia impacts survival and relapse after chemotherapy

Abstract

Natural killer (NKs) cells provide rapid responses to viral-infected andmalignant cells, including acutemyeloid leukemia (AML) blasts. The balance among inhibitory and activating signals, delivered bymultiple interactions between ligands on target cells and NK receptors, determines the posture of the NK cell response to either one of target cell elimination or tolerance. The aim of this work was to study the influence of the differential expression of activating and inhibitory NK receptor ligands (NKRLs) by leukemic blasts on clinical outcome in newly diagnosed AML patients. Leukemic cells and clinical data from 66 patients undergoing induction chemotherapy were obtained from the Australasia..