Engineering chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer cells for cancer immunotherapy

Antitumor activity of genetically engineered NK-cells in non-hematological solid tumor: a comprehensive review

Recent advancements in genetic engineering have made it possible to modify Natural Killer (NK) cells to enhance their ability to fight against various cancers, including solid tumors. This comprehensive overview discusses the current status of genetically engineered chimeric antigen receptor NK-cell therapies and their potential for treating solid tumors. We explore the inherent characteristics of NK cells and their role in immune regulation and tumor surveillance. Moreover, we examine the strategies used to genetically engineer NK cells in terms of efficacy, safety profile, and potential clinical applications. Our investigation suggests CAR-NK cells can effectively target and regress non-hematological malignancies, demonstrating enhanced antitumor efficacy. This implies excellent promise for treating tumors using genetically modified NK cells. Notably, NK cells exhibit low graft versus host disease (GvHD) potential and rarely induce significant toxicities, making them an ideal platform for CAR engineering. The adoptive transfer of allogeneic NK cells into patients further emphasizes the versatility of NK cells for various applications. We also address challenges and limitations associated with the clinical translation of genetically engineered NK-cell therapies, such as off-target effects, immune escape mechanisms, and manufacturing scalability. We provide strategies to overcome these obstacles through combination therapies and delivery optimization. Overall, we believe this review contributes to advancing NK-cell-based immunotherapy as a promising approach for cancer treatment by elucidating the underlying mechanisms, evaluating preclinical and clinical evidence, and addressing remaining challenges.

Chimeric antigen receptor-based natural killer cell immunotherapy in cancer: from bench to bedside

Immunotherapy has rapidly evolved in the past decades in the battle against cancer. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T cells have demonstrated significant success in certain hematologic malignancies, although they still face certain limitations, including high costs and toxic effects. Natural killer cells (NK cells), as a vital component of the immune system, serve as the "first responders" in the context of cancer development. In this literature review, we provide an updated understanding of NK cell development, functions, and their applications in disease therapy. Furthermore, we explore the rationale for utilizing engineered NK cell therapies, such as CAR-NK cells, and discuss the differences between CAR-T and CAR-NK cells. We also provide insights into the key elements and strategies involved in CAR design for engineered NK cells. In addition, we highlight the challenges currently encountered and discuss the future directions in NK cell research and utilization, including pre-clinical investigations and ongoing clinical trials. Based on the outstanding antitumor potential of NK cells, it is highly likely that they will lead to groundbreaking advancements in cancer treatment in the future.

Advancements in CRISPR screens for the development of cancer immunotherapy strategies

CRISPR screen technology enables systematic and scalable interrogation of gene function by using the CRISPR-Cas9 system to perturb gene expression. In the field of cancer immunotherapy, this technology has empowered the discovery of genes, biomarkers, and pathways that regulate tumor development and progression, immune reactivity, and the effectiveness of immunotherapeutic interventions. By conducting large-scale genetic screens, researchers have successfully identified novel targets to impede tumor growth, enhance anti-tumor immune responses, and surmount immunosuppression within the tumor microenvironment (TME). Here, we present an overview of CRISPR screens conducted in tumor cells for the purpose of identifying novel therapeutic targets. We also explore the application of CRISPR screens in immune cells to propel the advancement of cell-based therapies, encompassing T cells, natural killer cells, dendritic cells, and macrophages. Furthermore, we outline the crucial components necessary for the successful implementation of immune-specific CRISPR screens and explore potential directions for future research.

Recent advances of nanodrug delivery system in the treatment of hematologic malignancies

Although the survival rate of hematological malignancies (HM) has increased in recent years, the unnecessary adverse effect to the body is usually generated by the traditional chemotherapy for HM due to the lack of specificity to tumor tissue. Nanodrug delivery systems have exhibited unique advantages in targetability, stability and reducing toxicity, attracting wide concern, which is expected to be the prevalent alternative for the treatment of HM. In this review, we systemically introduced the current therapeutic strategies and the categories of HM. Subsequently, five key factors including circulation, targeting, penetration, internalization and release involving in tailoring nanoparticles were demonstrated, followed by the introduction of the development of nanodrug delivery-traditional synthetic nanomaterilas, biomimetic cell membrane coating nanomaterials, cell-based nanomaterials as well as immunotherapy combined with nanodrug. Afterwards, the recent advances of nanodrug delivery system for the treatment of HM were introduced. Moreover, the challenge and prospect of nanodrug delivery system in treating HM were discussed. The promising drug delivery system will provide new therapeutic avenues for the treatment of HM.

Advancement of chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer cells targeting hepatocellular carcinoma

With the advance of genome engineering technology, chimeric antigen receptors (CARs)-based immunotherapy has become an emerging therapeutic strategy for tumors. Although initially designed for T cells in tumor immunotherapy, CARs have been exploited to modify the function of natural killer (NK) cells against a variety of tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). CAR-NK cells have the potential to sufficiently kill tumor antigen-expressing HCC cells, independent of major histocompatibility complex matching or prior priming. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in genetic engineering of CAR-NK cells against HCC and discuss the current challenges and prospects of CAR-NK cells as a revolutionary cellular immunotherapy against HCC.

Engineering stem cells for cancer immunotherapy

Engineering stem cells presents an attractive paradigm for cancer immunotherapy. Stem cells engineered to stably express various chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) or T-cell receptors (TCRs) against tumor-associated antigens are showing increasing promise in the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Stem cells engraft for long-term immune cell generation and serve as a sustained source of tumor-specific effector cells to maintain remissions. Furthermore, engineering stem cells provides 'off-the-shelf' cellular products, obviating the need for a personalized and patient-specific product that plagues current autologous cell therapies. Herein, we summarize recent progress of stem cell-engineered cancer therapies, and discuss the utility, impact, opportunities, and challenges of cellular engineering that may facilitate the translational and clinical research.

Current progress in cancer immunotherapy based on natural killer cells

One of the most common diseases in the present era is cancer. The common treatment methods used to control cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Despite progress in the treatment of cancers, there still is no definite therapeutic approach. Among the currently proposed strategies, immunotherapy is a new approach that can provide better outcomes compared with existing therapies. Employing natural killer (NK) cells is one of the means of immunotherapy. As innate lymphocytes, NK cells are capable of rapidly responding to cancer cells without being sensitized or restricted to the cognate antigen in advance, as compared to T cells that are tumor antigen-specific. Latest insights into the biology of NK cells have clarified the underlying molecular mechanisms of NK cell maturation and differentiation, as well as controlling their effector functions through the investigation of the ligands and receptors engaged in recognizing cancer cells by NK cells. Elucidating the fact that NK cells recognize cancer cells could similarly show the mechanism through which cancer cells possibly avoid NK cell-dependent immune surveillance. Additionally, the expectations for novel immunotherapies by targeting NK cells have increased through the latest clinical outcomes of T-cell-targeted cancer immunotherapy. For this emerging method, researchers are still attempting to develop protocols for conferring the best proliferation and expansion medium, activation pathways, utilization dosage, transferring methods, as well as reducing possible side effects in cancer therapy. This study reviews the NK cells, their proliferation and expansion methods, and their recent applications in cancer immunotherapy.