What is your NK cell function?

[heapsreal]

I do wish there was more research on the NK cell dysfunction many of us have (mine has consistently been around 8). Anyway, I saw this article today on a possible new stem cell therapy for SCID (a.k.a "bubble boy disease"). The article also has a cool video.

Forgive me if this has been reported elsewhere on PR.


"Healthy NK immune cells grown from SCID patient-derived stem cells
In the journal Cell Stem Cell, researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, CA, describe how for the first time, they grew healthy NK immune cells in the lab from gene-edited stem cells derived from the cells of an SCID patient.
While it is still in the preliminary stage, they believe their technique offers the possibility of implanting the "tweaked cells" back into a patient so they can generate a complete immune system.
Such an option would be a huge leap forward. There is currently no cure for SCID, and current treatments - which rely on bone marrow transplants or gene therapy - do not always work.
Senior author Inder Verma, Salk professor and American Cancer Society professor of molecular biology, says:
"This work demonstrates a new method that could lead to a more effective and less invasive treatment for this devastating disease. It also has the potential to lay the foundation to cure other deadly and rare blood disorders."
Gene therapy held great promise for the treatment of SCID. This method, trialed in the 1990s, used bits of virus to deliver the correct genes to cells growing in the patient's bone marrow.
At first, this type of gene therapy seemed to work, but the way the genes were added eventually caused leukemia in some patients.
Since then, other gene therapy methods based on bone marrow transplants have been developed and are effective, but usually only in patients with mild forms of SCID. It is also a very difficult operation to carry out on very sick babies."

Interesting, shows again how important nk cells are to stopping infections. Theres many that seem to think low nk function doesnt mean much in cfs/me but in diseases such as in the link it shows the important work they do.

 

[waiting]

NK cell function is very sensitive to time, so the fresher the sample, the better. If you decide to ship your blood to a lab former this expensive test (around 500$) you need to consider accordingly.

I haven't been lucky in getting the test done in Canada, unfortunately but apparently others have.

@Kati, do you know where those patients got the NK cell function test done in Canada? I checked with Gamma Dynacare in Ontario, but they don't do it.
Thanks.

 

[shannah]

@waiting

We've used Gamma-Dynacare in Ontario previously but the last time it was done was in 2008. You say they don't do it now. Too bad.

An important consideration that was talked about at the CFSAC this week is that once the blood is drawn, the test has to be performed as soon as possible. Mary Ann Fletcher says the big problem with most labs is the wait time in getting it into an actual lab to perform the test. She says 4 hours is good but definitely needs done within 24 hours or it's a total waste of time and money and the results are not valid. Most labs, she says, take closer to 48 hours.

 

[Kati]

@Kati, do you know where those patients got the NK cell function test done in Canada? I checked with Gamma Dynacare in Ontario, but they don't do it.
Thanks.

i made a special trip to the US just to get tested.

 

[waiting]

i made a special trip to the US just to get tested.

Me too.

 

[waiting]

@waiting

We've used Gamma-Dynacare in Ontario previously but the last time it was done was in 2008. You say they don't do it now. Too bad.

An important consideration that was talked about at the CFSAC this week is that once the blood is drawn, the test has to be performed as soon as possible. Mary Ann Fletcher says the big problem with most labs is the wait time in getting it into an actual lab to perform the test. She says 4 hours is good but definitely needs done within 24 hours or it's a total waste of time and money and the results are not valid. Most labs, she says, take closer to 48 hours.

@shannah, Thanks for letting me know. At least this is what I was told today. They do the NK cell test but that's just the #, not the function/activity.