Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 19, 2026

Dextran Enhances the Lentiviral Transduction Efficiency of Murine and Human Primary NK Cells
Published on: January 15, 2018
A Distinct Subset of Highly Proliferative and Lentiviral Vector (LV)-Transducible NK Cells Define a Readily
Rafijul Bari1, Markus Granzin2, Kam Sze Tsang2
1Lentigen, a Miltenyi Biotec Company, Miltenyi Biotec Company, Gaithersburg, MD, United States.
Abstract:
Genetic engineering is an important tool for redirecting the function of various types of immune cells and their use for therapeutic purpose. Although NK cells have many beneficial therapeutic features, genetic engineering of immune cells for targeted therapy focuses mostly on T cells. One of the major obstacles for NK cell immunotherapy is the lack of an efficient method for gene transfer. Lentiviral vectors have been proven to be a safe tool for genetic engineering, however lentiviral transduction is inefficient for NK cells. We show in this study that lentiviral vectors pseudotyped with a modified baboon envelope glycoprotein can transduce NK cells 20-fold or higher in comparison to VSV-G pseudotyped lentiviral vector. When we investigated the mechanism of transduction, we found that activated NK cells expressed baboon envelope receptor ASCT-2. Further analysis revealed that only a subset of NK cells could be expanded and transduced with an expression profile of NK56bright, CD16dim, TRAILhigh, and CX3CR1neg. Using CD19-CAR, we could show that CD19 redirected NK cells efficiently and specifically kill cell lines expressing CD19. Taken together, the results from this study will be important for future genetic modification and for redirecting of NK cell function for therapeutic purpose.
Related Concept Videos
08:42Dextran Enhances the Lentiviral Transduction Efficiency of Murine and Human Primary NK Cells
11:26Single-cell RNA-Seq of Defined Subsets of Retinal Ganglion Cells
07:49Evaluation of Tumor-infiltrating Leukocyte Subsets in a Subcutaneous Tumor Model
09:09An Efficient and High Yield Method for Isolation of Mouse Dendritic Cell Subsets
04:16Lentiviral Vector-Based Perivitelline Injection: A Method to Transduce the Gene of Interest Into Fertilized Single-Cell Mouse Oocytes
10:58Discrimination of Seven Immune Cell Subsets by Two-fluorochrome Flow Cytometry

