Bitter Melon Enhances Natural Killer-Mediated Toxicity against Head and Neck Cancer Cells

In this study, we investigated whether BME can enhance the NK-cell killing activity against HNSCC cells. Our results indicated that treatment of human NK-cell line (NK3.3) with BME enhances ability to kill HNSCC cells. BME increases granzyme B accumulation and translocation/accumulation of CD107a/LAMP1 in NK3.3 cells exposed to BME. Furthermore, an increase in cell surface expression of CD16 and NKp30 in BME-treated NK3.3 cells was observed when cocultured with HNSCC cells. Collectively, our results demonstrated for the first time that BME augments NK-cell–mediated HNSCC killing activity, implicating an immunomodulatory role of BME. Cancer Prev Res; 10(6); 337–44. ©2017 AACR.
Source: Cancer Prevention Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Research Articles Source Type: research