Industry appetite for natural killer cells intensifies

Bon appetit! Good news! Let the natural killers loose and they never kill humans!

As an aside: It was quite shocking that during the three year long global Covid-19 pandemic, too many even highly educated utter fools dismissed natural immunity too easily!

"... Interest in natural killer (NK) cells has escalated as large players drum up collaborations to bring NK-driven programs and tools into their portfolios. In December, Sanofi deepened its commitment to antibody-based NK cell engagers, expanding an ongoing partnership with Marseille-based Innate Pharma. A few months earlier, Sanofi also turned to Scribe Therapeutics’ CRISPR platform to develop off-the shelf NK cell therapies for oncology, paying $25 million up front in a deal that could be worth $1 billion. Other deals and partnerships involving AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Merck, Cambridge, UK-based AstraZeneca and Tokyo-based Takeda added to the momentum. Most programs are, however, at an early stage — and developers, for the most part, are still seeking signs of efficacy and refining protocols to manufacture the cells at scale. NK cells are important for immunosurveillance. Their role, as part of the innate immune system, is to kill virally infected cells and eliminate early signs of cancer. As immunotherapies, NK cells — both natural and engineered — are a safer and more user-friendly alternative to T cells (Table 1). “The major advantage of NK cells is they’ve never killed anybody, unlike CAR-T cells ...
What’s more, NK cell therapies are highly suitable for allogeneic approaches, as they do not cause graft-versus-host disease. ..."

Industry appetite for natural killer cells intensifies | Nature Biotechnology Natural killer cells are attractive as cancer immunotherapy agents because — unlike T cells — they evade immune rejection and do not induce cytokine storms. But capturing their activity in effective therapies remains a work in progress.

Natural killer cells attack a tumor cell

Table 1 Selected NK cell therapies in clinical development

From: Industry appetite for natural killer cells intensifies

Developer(s)	Therapy	Description	Indications	Clinical stage
Takeda, MD Anderson Cancer Center	TAK-007	Cord-blood-derived NK cells engineered to express a CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor, IL-15 and an inducible caspase 9 safety switch	B cell NHL	Phase 2
XNK Therapeutics	Evencaleucel (XNK01)	Autologous NK cell therapy	Multiple myeloma	Phase 2
Artiva Biotherapeutics	AB-101	Allogeneic NK cell therapy derived from cord blood	B cell NHL	Phase 1/2
Celularity	CYNK-001	Allogeneic unmodified NK cells derived from CD34+ placental cells	Glioblastoma, AML, multiple myeloma	Phase 1/2, phase 1
Celularity	CYNK-101	Allogeneic NK cells derived from CD34+ placental cells engineered to express a high-affinity, cleavage-resistant CD16 variant to enhance antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity	HER2+ gastric or gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma	Phase 1/2
Gamida Cell	GDA-201	Allogeneic NK cell therapy derived from peripheral blood and expanded ex vivo with nicotinamide and IL-15	B cell NHL	Phase 1/2
Nkarta	NKX101	Allogeneic CAR-NK cell therapy directed against NKG2D ligands expressed on cancer cells	R/R acute myeloid leukemia, higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome	Phase 1
Nkarta	NKX019	Allogeneic CAR-NK cell therapy directed against CD19	R/R B cell malignancies	Phase 1
Sanofi	SAR445419 (formerly KDS1001)	Allogeneic NK cell therapy	AML	Phase 1

1. NK, natural killer; IL, interleukin; NHL, non-Hodgkin lymphoma; AML, acute myeloid leukemia; HER2, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; R/R, relapsed or refractory. Sources: ClinicalTrials.gov, PubMed, and company websites.