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Review
. 2022 Nov 4;14(21):5438.
doi: 10.3390/cancers14215438.

Nanoparticle Enhancement of Natural Killer (NK) Cell-Based Immunotherapy

Dhanashree Murugan  1   2 , Vasanth Murugesan  2   3 , Balaji Panchapakesan  4 , Loganathan Rangasamy  2
Affiliations
Review

Nanoparticle Enhancement of Natural Killer (NK) Cell-Based Immunotherapy

Dhanashree Murugan et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Natural killer (NK) cells are one of the first lines of defense against infections and malignancies. NK cell-based immunotherapies are emerging as an alternative to T cell-based immunotherapies. Preclinical and clinical studies of NK cell-based immunotherapies have given promising results in the past few decades for hematologic malignancies. Despite these achievements, NK cell-based immunotherapies have limitations, such as limited performance/low therapeutic efficiency in solid tumors, the short lifespan of NK cells, limited specificity of adoptive transfer and genetic modification, NK cell rejection by the patient's immune system, insignificant infiltration of NK cells into the tumor microenvironment (TME), and the expensive nature of the treatment. Nanotechnology could potentially assist with the activation, proliferation, near-real time imaging, and enhancement of NK cell cytotoxic activity by guiding their function, analyzing their performance in near-real time, and improving immunotherapeutic efficiency. This paper reviews the role of NK cells, their mechanism of action in killing tumor cells, and the receptors which could serve as potential targets for signaling. Specifically, we have reviewed five different areas of nanotechnology that could enhance immunotherapy efficiency: nanoparticle-assisted immunomodulation to enhance NK cell activity, nanoparticles enhancing homing of NK cells, nanoparticle delivery of RNAi to enhance NK cell activity, genetic modulation of NK cells based on nanoparticles, and nanoparticle activation of NKG2D, which is the master regulator of all NK cell responses.

Keywords: NK cell receptors; NK cell-mediated immunotherapy; NK cells; applications of nanoparticles; nanoparticles.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 2
Figure 2
Mechanism of action of NK cell on tumor cells. Adapted from [68].
Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of the phases of immunoediting, namely elimination, equilibrium, and escape.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic representation of various strategies for NK cell-based nano-immunotherapies. Adapted from [89,90,91].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic representation of nanoparticle-assisted development of CAR-NK cell-based therapy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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