Natural killer cells, one of the important types of innate immune cells, play a pivotal role in the antiviral process in vivo. It has been shown that increasing NK cell activity may promote the alleviation of viral infections, even severe infection-induced sepsis. Given the current state of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) global pandemic, clarifying the anti-viral function of NK cells would be helpful for revealing the mechanism of host immune responses and decipher the progression of COVID-19 and providing important clues for combating this pandemic. In this review, we summarize the roles of NK cells in viral infection and sepsis as well as the potential possibilities of NK cell-based immunotherapy for treating COVID-19.

中文翻译：

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NK细胞在对抗病毒感染和败血症中的作用

自然杀伤细胞是先天免疫细胞的重要类型之一，在体内抗病毒过程中起着举足轻重的作用。已经表明，增加 NK 细胞活性可以​​促进病毒感染的缓解，甚至是严重的感染引起的败血症。鉴于新型冠状病毒 (SARS-CoV-2) 全球大流行的现状，阐明 NK 细胞的抗病毒功能将有助于揭示宿主免疫反应的机制和破译 COVID-19 的进展并提供重要线索为了抗击这次疫情。在这篇综述中，我们总结了 NK 细胞在病毒感染和败血症中的作用，以及基于 NK 细胞的免疫疗法治疗 COVID-19 的潜在可能性。