Cancers, Vol. 11, Pages 966: Cryopreserved Human Natural Killer Cells Exhibit Potent Antitumor Efficacy against Orthotopic Pancreatic Cancer through Efficient Tumor-Homing and Cytolytic Ability

Cancers, Vol. 11, Pages 966: Cryopreserved Human Natural Killer Cells Exhibit Potent Antitumor Efficacy against Orthotopic Pancreatic Cancer through Efficient Tumor-Homing and Cytolytic Ability Cancers doi: 10.3390/cancers11070966 Authors: Oh Min Li Lian Hong Park Yang Cho Hwang Yun Pancreatic cancer is known to be highly aggressive, and desmoplasia-induced accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM), which is a hallmark of many pancreatic cancers, severely restricts the therapeutic efficacy of both immunotherapeutics and conventional chemotherapeutics due to the ECM functioning as a major physical barrier against permeation and penetration. In the case of cell-based immunotherapeutics, there are several other bottlenecks preventing translation into clinical use due to their biological nature; for example, poor availability of cell therapeutic in a readily usable form due to difficulties in production, handling, shipping, and storage. To address these challenges, we have isolated allogeneic natural killer (NK) cells from healthy donors and expanded them in vitro to generate cryopreserved stocks. These cryopreserved NK cells were thawed to evaluate their therapeutic efficacy against desmoplastic pancreatic tumors, ultimately aiming to develop a readily accessible and mass-producible off-the-shelf cell-based immunotherapeutic. The cultured NK cells post-thawing retained highly pure populations of activated NK cells that expressed various activ...
Source: Cancers - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research