cells Article Understanding the Synergy of NKp46 and Co-Activating Signals in Various NK Cell Subpopulations: Paving the Way for More Successful NK-Cell-Based Immunotherapy 1,2, 3, 1, 1 Loris Zamai * , Genny Del Zotto y , Flavia Buccella y, Sara Gabrielli , Barbara Canonico 1 , Marco Artico 4, Claudio Ortolani 1 and Stefano Papa 1 1 Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, 61032 Urbino, Italy; fl
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[email protected] (S.P.) 2 INFN-Gran Sasso National Laboratory, Assergi, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy 3 Area Aggregazione Servizi e Laboratori Diagnostici, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, 16147 Genoa, Italy;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +39-0722-304319; Fax: +39-0722-304319 These authors contributed equally. y Received: 11 February 2020; Accepted: 13 March 2020; Published: 19 March 2020 Abstract: The NK cell population is characterized by distinct NK cell subsets that respond differently to the various activating stimuli. For this reason, the determination of the optimal cytotoxic activation of the different NK cell subsets can be a crucial aspect to be exploited to counter cancer cells in oncologic patients. To evaluate how the triggering of different combination of activating receptors can affect the cytotoxic responses of different NK cell subsets, we developed a microbead-based degranulation assay. By using this new assay, we were able to detect CD107a+ degranulating NK cells even within the less cytotoxic subsets (i.e., resting CD56bright and unlicensed CD56dim NK cells), thus demonstrating its high sensitivity.