The Race of CAR Therapies: CAR-NK Cells for Fighting B-Cell Hematological Cancers

Overview

Journal Cancers (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Oncology

Date 2021 Nov 13

PMID 34771581

Citations 8

Authors

Lara Herrera

Silvia Santos

Miguel Angel Vesga

Tomas Carrascosa

Juan Carlos Garcia-Ruiz

Antonio Perez-Martinez

Manel Juan

Cristina Eguizabal

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) are the most common leukemias in children and elderly people, respectively. Standard therapies, such as chemotherapy, are only effective in 40% of ALL adult patients with a five-year survival rate and therefore new alternatives need to be used, such as immunotherapy targeting specific receptors of malignant cells. Among all the options, CAR (Chimeric antigen receptor)-based therapy has arisen as a new opportunity for refractory or relapsed hematological cancer patients. CARs were designed to be used along with T lymphocytes, creating CAR-T cells, but they are presenting such encouraging results that they are already in use as drugs. Nonetheless, their side-effects and the fact that it is not possible to infuse an allogenic CAR-T product without causing graft-versus-host-disease, have meant using a different cell source to solve these problems, such as Natural Killer (NK) cells. Although CAR-based treatment is a high-speed race led by CAR-T cells, CAR-NK cells are slowly (but surely) consolidating their position; their demonstrated efficacy and the lack of undesirable side-effects is opening a new door for CAR-based treatments. CAR-NKs are now in the field to stay.

Citing Articles

CAR-NK Cell Therapy: A Transformative Approach to Overcoming Oncological Challenges.

Li W, Wang X, Zhang X, Aziz A, Wang D Biomolecules. 2024; 14(8).

PMID: 39199421 PMC: 11352442. DOI: 10.3390/biom14081035.

A new vision of the efficacy of both CAR-NK and CAR-T cells in treating cancers and autoimmune diseases.

Hassan S, Alshahrani M, Saleh R, Mohammed B, Kumar A, Almalki S Med Oncol. 2024; 41(6):127.

PMID: 38656354 DOI: 10.1007/s12032-024-02362-0.

Analysis of the impact of handling and culture on the expansion and functionality of NK cells.

Martin-Iglesias S, Herrera L, Santos S, Vesga M, Eguizabal C, Lanceros-Mendez S Front Immunol. 2023; 14:1225549.

PMID: 37638054 PMC: 10451065. DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1225549.

Cellular Therapies in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Richter's Transformation: Recent Developments in Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cells, Natural Killer Cells, and Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant.

Coombs C, Easaw S, Grover N, OBrien S Cancers (Basel). 2023; 15(6).

PMID: 36980726 PMC: 10046903. DOI: 10.3390/cancers15061838.

Recent findings on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered immune cell therapy in solid tumors and hematological malignancies.

Keshavarz A, Salehi A, Khosravi S, Shariati Y, Nasrabadi N, Kahrizi M Stem Cell Res Ther. 2022; 13(1):482.

PMID: 36153626 PMC: 9509604. DOI: 10.1186/s13287-022-03163-w.

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