Natural Killer Cells: Angels and Devils for Immunotherapy

Natural Killer Cells: Angels and Devils for Immunotherapy

In recent years, the relevance of the immune system to fight cancer has led to the development of immunotherapy, including the adoptive cell transfer of immune cells, such as natural killer (NK) cells and chimeric antigen receptors (CAR)-modified T cells. The discovery of donor NK cells' anti-tumor activity in acute myeloid leukemia patients receiving allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-...

Natural Killer T Cells in Cancer Immunotherapy

Natural killer T (NKT) cells are specialized CD1d-restricted T cells that recognize lipid antigens. Following stimulation, NKT cells lead to downstream activation of both innate and adaptive immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. This has impelled the development of NKT cell-targeted immunotherapies for treating cancer. In this review, we provide a brief overview of the stimulatory and reg...

Expansion and activation of natural killer cells for cancer immunotherapy.

Natural killer (NK) cells can kill a wide range of cancer cells and are a promising tool for cell therapy of cancer. NK cells cytotoxicity is regulated by a balance between stimulatory and inhibitory signals. Interleukin-2 is known to increase NK cell cytotoxicity. Although many cytokines have been studied in efforts to induce durable NK cell expansions, most reports indicate a rather modest ef...

Invariant natural killer T cells and immunotherapy of cancer.

Invariant CD1d restricted natural killer T (iNKT) cells are regulatory cells that express a canonical TCR-Valpha-chain (Valpha24.Jalpha18 in humans and Valpha14.Jalpha18 in mice) which recognizes glycolipid antigens presented by the monomorphic CD1d molecule. They can secrete a wide variety of both pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines very swiftly upon their activation. Evidence for...

Managed care: devils, angels, and the truth in between.