Engineered CAR-NK Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy: Lentiviral-Based CAR Transduction of NK-92 Cells

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy has emerged as a groundbreaking immunotherapeutic approach to cancer treatment. However, despite its remarkable results, challenges persist, such as manufacturing complexity, side effects, and cost. Allogeneic therapies offer potential solutions to these challenges by enhancing accessibility, reducing cost, and increasing scalability. Due to their innate cytotoxicity and reduced risks of side effects to the patients, natural killer cells are an up-and-coming option for allogeneic CAR therapy. The NK-92 cell line use allows large-scale expansion suitable for clinical grade applications, providing a uniform and highly cytotoxic source. Nevertheless, gene delivery using viral vectors is still an obstacle related to CAR-NK therapies due to their natural antiviral activity. Thus, the present protocol offers an efficient approach for CAR-NK-92 cell generation via lentiviral transduction, thereby advancing the potential of this promising cancer therapy.