Cytokine-induced NK-like T cells: from bench to bedside

Abstract

Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells are polyclonal T effector cells generated when cultured under cytokine stimulation. CIK cells exhibit potent, non-MHC-restricted cytolytic activities against susceptible tumor cells of both autologous and allogeneic origins. Over the past 20 years, CIK cells have evolved from experimental observations into early clinical studies with encouraging preliminary efficacy towards susceptible autologous and allogeneic tumor cells in both therapeutic and adjuvant settings. This paper is our attempt to summarize the available published literature related to CIK cells. Looking into the future, we anticipate that the continuous therapeutic application of CIK cells will likely be developed along two major directions: overcoming the challenge to organize large prospective randomized clinical trials to define the roles of CIK cells in cancer immunotherapy and expanding its spectrum of cytotoxicity towards resistant tumor cells through experimental manipulations.

Figure 1

Marrow cells obtained from newly diagnosed AML samples analyzed by side scatter versus CD45 staining show a large proportion of leukemic blasts that are CD45^dim and a much smaller fraction of normal lymphocytes that are CD45^bright (a). Culture of the bulk marrow cells comprising of majority of leukemic blasts with a small fraction of lymphocytes under CIK condition (b) is able to generate an end product comprising of a majority of CD3⁺ cells with a variable CD3⁺CD56⁺ fraction (c).