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Cell

Natural killer cell

Cytotoxic lymphocyte responding to infected or stressed cells.

Also called: NK cell, natural killer cell

Ask about Natural killer cell See in graph Sources

In short

  1. 1What it is: a cell in cells and organs.
  2. 2How it connects: acts on 4 and is affected by 2 concepts — mostly 1 molecule, 2 receptor, 1 pathway.
  3. 3Where it sits: recognition, response, target on the 15-step immune chain.

What it does

Primary ADCC mechanism of all IgG1 mAbs (rituximab, trastuzumab, obinutuzumab) via FcγRIIIa; afucosylation enhances NK ADCC 50-100× (obinutuzumab LN FDA 2025, benralizumab); anti-NKG2A (monalizumab) releases NK inhibitory checkpoint; MHC-I loss activates NK (missing-self, explains why CAR-NK works when MHC-I is downregulated); SLC6A4 on NK cells suppresses anti-tumour cytotoxicity (AI discovery → fluoxetine+pembrolizumab Phase 2 NSCLC 2024)

Its connections at a glance

Each dot is a concept directly linked to Natural killer cell. Colours show the kind of concept.

Type-I interferon sig…MHC class I (HLA-A/B/…Influenza A virusCancer immune escapeNKG2DPerforin / Granzyme BNatural killer cell

Learn next

Comes beforeType-I interferon signallingPathwayComes beforeMHC class I (HLA-A/B/C)ReceptorLeads toCancer immune escapeDisease
Sources & evidenceloading…

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Graph ID C006 · concept status: established. Select any connection above to inspect evidence for that specific link.