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Generation of Natural Killer Cells from Human Expanded Potential Stem Cells
Published on: January 13, 2023
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Generating natural killer cells for adoptive transfer: expanding horizons
Soumyadipta Kundu1, Mark Gurney2, Michael O'Dwyer3
1Centre for Cell Manufacturing Ireland, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland.
Cytotherapy
|January 12, 2021
Summary
Natural killer (NK) cells show promise for cancer immunotherapy. This review covers methods for expanding NK cells for clinical use, focusing on techniques from recent trials.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Cell Biology
- Cancer Research
Background:
- Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphoid cells with significant therapeutic potential in adoptive cell transfer cancer immunotherapy.
- Clinical trials have established the efficacy of NK cell-based therapies, utilizing cells from various sources like peripheral blood, apheresis products, and umbilical cord blood.
- NK cells can also be generated from hematopoietic progenitors and stem cells, offering alternative sources for therapeutic applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the current landscape of clinical-grade natural killer (NK) cell expansion techniques.
- To explore the characteristics of an ideal NK cell expansion strategy for therapeutic applications.
- To focus on specific methods employed in recently published clinical trials for NK cell expansion.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature and recently published clinical trial data on NK cell expansion.
- Analysis of different NK cell sources, including peripheral blood, apheresis products, umbilical cord blood, and stem cell-derived NK cells.
- Discussion of ex vivo expansion strategies, cytokine-based activation, and genetic engineering approaches.
Main Results:
- Ex vivo expansion of NK cells allows for higher cell doses and modulation of effector cell characteristics.
- While ex vivo expansion can raise concerns about senescence and exhaustion, it enables the generation of potent effector cells from limited starting materials.
- Various NK cell expansion techniques are being utilized in ongoing and recently completed clinical trials.
Conclusions:
- Clinical-grade NK cell expansion is crucial for advancing adoptive cell transfer cancer immunotherapies.
- Optimizing NK cell expansion methods is key to overcoming challenges like senescence and achieving therapeutic efficacy.
- The reviewed techniques provide insights into generating potent NK cell products for clinical applications.
