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REVIEW article
Front. Cell. Neurosci.
Sec. Cellular Neuropathology
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fncel.2025.1500770
This article is part of the Research Topic Emerging Mechanisms in Neuroinflammation: Potential Therapeutic Targets for Neurodegenerative Diseases View all 7 articles
Natural killer cells in Multiple Sclerosis: Foe or friends?
Provisionally accepted- School of Mechanics, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated disorder involving the central nervous system (CNS), in which demyelination is caused. The initiation and progression of MS is thought to depend largely on CD4 + T lymphocytes, yet new data has emphasized the involvement of the innate immune system in the MS disease responses. Generally, several types of immune cells play a part, with natural killer (NK) cells being essential. Different subsets of natural killer cells function differently within the course of an autoimmune disease, such as MS. There are mainly two types of natural killers in humans: immature CD56 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 CD16 - and mature CD56 𝑑𝑖𝑚 CD16 + natural killers, together with their respective subtypes. Factors from natural killers expand the T cell population and control the process by which native CD4 + T cells differentiate into Th1 or Th2 lymphocytes, which affect autoimmune responses. natural killer subsets CD56 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 and CD56 𝑑𝑖𝑚 may have differing roles in MS development. The impact of these NK cell subsets is influenced by factors such as Granzymes, genetics, infections, TLR, and HSP. We reviewed and evaluated the relationship between natural killer cells and MS.
Keywords: Multiple Sclerosis, Natural Killer, Inflammation, Immunity, protection
Received: 23 Sep 2024; Accepted: 20 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Aghaee, Abedinpour, Anvari, Saberi, Fallah and Bakhshi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Arash Bakhshi, School of Mechanics, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.