Researchers at the University of Georgia’s Regenerative Bioscience Center and their colleagues have found that “natural killer” white blood cells could guard against the cascade of cellular changes that lead to Parkinson’s disease and help stop its progression.
Natural killer (NK) cells are white blood cells that can kill tumors without being “told” from the body to do so. NK cells provide the first line of defense against invasion or a virus and are equipped with activating receptors that can sense cellular stress and identify cells that have been altered due to infection.
“Right now there’s no available therapy to modify or stop the progression of Parkinson’s,” said lead author Jae-Kyung “Jamise” Lee, assistant professor in UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “This would be the first NK study to show the possibility of actually stopping the disease.”
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