CAR-NK Cells: A Promising Cellular Immunotherapy for Cancer

Overview

Journal EBioMedicine

Specialty Biomedical Engineering

Date 2020 Aug 28

PMID 32853984

Citations 355

Authors

Guozhu Xie

Han Dong

Yong Liang

James Dongjoo Ham

Romee Rizwan

Jianzhu Chen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Natural Killer (NK) cells and CD8 cytotoxic T cells are two types of immune cells that can kill target cells through similar cytotoxic mechanisms. With the remarkable success of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T (CAR-T) cells for treating haematological malignancies, there is a rapid growing interest in developing CAR-engineered NK (CAR-NK) cells for cancer therapy. Compared to CAR-T cells, CAR-NK cells could offer some significant advantages, including: (1) better safety, such as a lack or minimal cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity in autologous setting and graft-versus-host disease in allogenic setting, (2) multiple mechanisms for activating cytotoxic activity, and (3) high feasibility for 'off-the-shelf' manufacturing. CAR-NK cells could be engineered to target diverse antigens, enhance proliferation and persistence in vivo, increase infiltration into solid tumours, overcome resistant tumour microenvironment, and ultimately achieve an effective anti-tumour response. In this review, we focus on recent progress in genetic engineering and clinical application of CAR-NK cells, and discuss current challenges and future promise of CAR-NK cells as a novel cellular immunotherapy in cancer.

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