Engineered natural killer cells for cancer therapy
Cet article passe en revue les études concernant les cellules NK modifiées par ingénierie pour le traitement des cancers, résume les résultats des essais cliniques de phase précoce puis examine les nouvelles approches en matière de biologie de synthèse et d'ingénierie pour améliorer l'efficacité thérapeutique de ces cellules
Allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell immunotherapy is emerging as a promising and scalable, off-the-shelf platform for treating relapsed and refractory cancers. Early-phase clinical trials have demonstrated remarkable safety and encouraging therapeutic efficacy of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-NK cells in heavily pretreated patients with lymphoid malignancies. Current efforts are expanding these therapies to solid tumors, with translational research increasingly leveraging precision gene editing to enhance effector function, persistence, and resistance to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. In this review, we summarize findings from early-phase clinical trials and discuss emerging synthetic biology and engineering approaches to improve NK cell potency. We also highlight advances in high-throughput discovery platforms that have identified actionable gene targets for NK cell reprogramming, offering a path to design multi-engineered CAR-NK cells to overcome the challenges of solid tumors. Together, these translational innovations define the trajectory of next-generation NK cell therapies and their integration into the broader cancer immunotherapy landscape.
Cancer Cell , résumé, 2025