Immunotherapies that genetically modulate the antigenic receptors on a patient’s T cells—so-called CAR-T therapy—to seek out and destroy cancer have been met with favorable success over the past several years. Subsequently, CAR-T cells have received all the accolades and attention among genetically modified immune cells. But now there is a new player on the pitch that could give CAR-T a run for its money. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the University of Minnesota report that CAR-modified natural killer (NK) cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) display heightened activity against a mouse model of ovarian cancer. Findings from the new study—published recently in Cell Stem Cell , in an article entitled “ Human iPSC-Derived Natural Killer Cells Engineered with Chimeric Antigen Receptors Enhance Anti-Tumor Activity ”—are significant because NK cells may offer distinct advantages over T cells, including the ...
Original Article: CAR-T Cells Just Got Some "Killer" Competition