Nk-cell immunotherapy for aml

Abstract

Natural killer (NK) cells are large granular lymphocytes of the innate immune system first described four decades ago for their ability to recognize and kill target cells a priori without prior experience of the target—and in a manner that is antigen unrestricted. Because of recent advances in understanding the mechanisms of NK-cell target recognition and the diversity within the NK-cell repertoire, we now recognize that NK cells play an important role in cancer immunosurveillance. Acute myeloid leukemias are among the most well characterized of NK-cell-sensitive malignancies, and differences in NK-cell genotype, phenotype, and function correlate with disease progression and predict therapeutic responses. The ability to generate clinical-grade therapeutic products of sufficient purity, number, and function has only recently allowed NK-cell immunotherapy to be pursued in clinical trials as monotherapy, in combination with monoclonal antibodies or immunomodulating drugs, and within the setting of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.