Engineered to hit CD19, boosted to persist, natural killer cells now in first–in–human clinical trial.
Immune cells with a general knack for recognizing and killing many types of infected or abnormal cells also can be engineered to hunt down cells with specific targets on them to treat cancer, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the journal Leukemia.

The team’s preclinical research shows that natural killer cells derived from donated umbilical cords can be modified to seek and destroy some types of leukemia and lymphoma. Genetic engineering also boosts their persistence and embeds a suicide gene that allows the modified cells to be shut down if they cause a severe inflammatory response.

A first–in–human phase I/II clinical trial of these cord–blood–derived, chimeric antigen receptor–equipped natural killer cells opened at MD Anderson in June for patients with relapsed or resistant chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), or non–Hodgkin lymphoma. All are cancers of the B cells, another white blood cell involved in immune response.

“Natural killer cells are the immune system’s most potent killers, but they are short–lived and cancers manage to evade a patient’s own NK cells to progress,” said Katy Rezvani, MD, PhD, professor of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.

“Our cord–blood derived NK cells, genetically equipped with a receptor that focuses them on B–cell malignancies and with interleukin–15 to help them persist longer – potentially for months instead of two or three weeks – are designed to address these challenges,” Rezvani said.