Natural killer (NK) cells play a multitude of antiviral roles that are significant enough to provoke viral counterefforts to subvert their activity. As innate lymphocytes, NK cells provide a rapid source of pro-inflammatory antiviral cytokines and bring to bear cytolytic activities that are collectively meant to constrain viral replication and dissemination. Additionally, NK cells participate in adaptive immunity both by shaping virus-specific T-cell responses and by developing adaptive features themselves, including enhanced antibody-dependent effector functions. The relative importance of different functional activities of NK cells are poorly understood, thereby obfuscating clinical use of these cells. Here we focus on opposing efforts of NK cells and viruses to gain tactical superiority during infection.

天然杀伤（NK）细胞起着许多重要的抗病毒作用，足以引起病毒的反作用以破坏其活性。作为先天淋巴细胞，NK细胞提供了促炎性抗病毒细胞因子的快速来源，并具有细胞溶解活性，这些活性共同意味着抑制病毒的复制和传播。此外，NK细胞通过形成病毒特异性T细胞应答和自身形成适应性特征（包括增强的抗体依赖性效应子功能）来参与适应性免疫。人们对NK细胞不同功能活性的相对重要性了解甚少，从而混淆了这些细胞的临床用途。在这里，我们专注于NK细胞和病毒在感染过程中获得战术优势的相反努力。