Dr. Massimo Fantini et al. of Precision Biologics publishes review article in Frontiers of Immunology

Natural killer (NK) cells are cellular components of the innate immune system that can recognize and suppress the proliferation of cancer cells. Unfortunately, cancer cells use several mechanisms to evade antitumor activity of NK cells. Several strategies have been developed to enhance the antitumor activity of NK cells with the goal of overcoming cancer cells resistance to NK cells.

In this review, just published in Frontiers in Immunology, Fantini et al reported that the three main strategies to engineer and boost NK cells cytotoxicity include boosting NK cells with modulatory cytokines, adoptive NK cell therapy, and the employment of engineered NK cells to enhance antibody-based immunotherapy.

In particular, the combination of monoclonal antibodies that mediate ADCC and engineered NK cells with potentiated anticancer activity can result in a superior clinical response compared to monoclonal antibodies alone and will provide more effective and higher-quality treatments to cancer patients.