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Highlights of 2024: unleashing the power of NK cells-cancer's worst nightmare

Capucine Bourel1,2, Fernando Souza-Fonseca-Guimaraes3, Sylvie Lesage1,2

  • 1Immunologie-oncologie, Centre de recherche de l'Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont, Montréal, QC, Canada.

Immunology and Cell Biology
|June 3, 2025
PubMed

Insights

Strategies to enhance natural killer (NK) cell cancer therapies are discussed, including bacterial cytokine expression, CAR-NK cell optimization, CRISPR-Cas9 gene targeting, and tetraspecific engagers for improved anti-tumor responses.

Area of Science:

  • Immunology
  • Cancer Therapy
  • Cellular Engineering

Background:

  • Natural killer (NK) cells are crucial for innate immunity against cancer.
  • Enhancing NK cell activity is a promising strategy for novel cancer treatments.
  • Current NK cell therapies face challenges in efficacy and manufacturing.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review recent advancements in NK cell-based cancer therapies.
  • To highlight innovative strategies for boosting NK cell anti-tumor functions.
  • To discuss the potential of these strategies in clinical applications.

Main Methods:

  • Engineering bacterial membranes for cytokine delivery to tumors.
  • Optimizing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-NK cell manufacturing processes.
  • Utilizing CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to modulate NK cell activity.
  • Developing tetraspecific engagers for enhanced NK cell cytotoxicity.

Main Results:

  • Bacterial cytokine expression can significantly enhance NK cell activation within tumors.
  • Optimized CAR-NK cell manufacturing improves therapeutic efficacy.
  • CRISPR-Cas9 facilitates the identification and targeting of inhibitory NK cell genes.
  • Tetraspecific engagers and cytokine memory-like NK cells strengthen anti-tumor immune responses.

Conclusions:

  • Significant progress in 2024 offers new avenues for NK cell-based cancer treatments.
  • These strategies collectively promise to improve the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies.
  • Further research and development are expected to translate these findings into clinical benefits.
Keywords:
CAR‐NK cellsNK cellsantitumor activityefficacygene editingsafety

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