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Targeting NK Cells for Anticancer Immunotherapy: Clinical and Preclinical Approaches

The recent success of checkpoint blockade has highlighted the potential of immunotherapy approaches for cancer treatment. Although the majority of approved immunotherapy drugs target T cell subsets, it is appreciated that other components of the immune system have important roles in tumor immune sur...

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Autor principal: Carotta, Sebastian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4838611/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27148271
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2016.00152
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author Carotta, Sebastian
author_facet Carotta, Sebastian
author_sort Carotta, Sebastian
collection PubMed
description The recent success of checkpoint blockade has highlighted the potential of immunotherapy approaches for cancer treatment. Although the majority of approved immunotherapy drugs target T cell subsets, it is appreciated that other components of the immune system have important roles in tumor immune surveillance as well and thus represent promising additional targets for immunotherapy. Natural killer (NK) cells are the body’s first line of defense against infected or transformed cells, as they kill target cells in an antigen-independent manner. Although several studies have clearly demonstrated the active role of NK cells in cancer immune surveillance, only few clinically approved therapies currently exist that harness their potential. Our increased understanding of NK cell biology over the past few years has renewed the interest in NK cell-based anticancer therapies, which has lead to a steady increase of NK cell-based clinical and preclinical trials. Here, the role of NK cells in cancer immune surveillance is summarized, and several novel approaches to enhance NK cell cytotoxicity against cancer are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-48386112016-05-04 Targeting NK Cells for Anticancer Immunotherapy: Clinical and Preclinical Approaches Carotta, Sebastian Front Immunol Immunology The recent success of checkpoint blockade has highlighted the potential of immunotherapy approaches for cancer treatment. Although the majority of approved immunotherapy drugs target T cell subsets, it is appreciated that other components of the immune system have important roles in tumor immune surveillance as well and thus represent promising additional targets for immunotherapy. Natural killer (NK) cells are the body’s first line of defense against infected or transformed cells, as they kill target cells in an antigen-independent manner. Although several studies have clearly demonstrated the active role of NK cells in cancer immune surveillance, only few clinically approved therapies currently exist that harness their potential. Our increased understanding of NK cell biology over the past few years has renewed the interest in NK cell-based anticancer therapies, which has lead to a steady increase of NK cell-based clinical and preclinical trials. Here, the role of NK cells in cancer immune surveillance is summarized, and several novel approaches to enhance NK cell cytotoxicity against cancer are discussed. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-04-21 /pmc/articles/PMC4838611/ /pubmed/27148271 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2016.00152 Text en Copyright © 2016 Carotta. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Immunology
Carotta, Sebastian
Targeting NK Cells for Anticancer Immunotherapy: Clinical and Preclinical Approaches
title Targeting NK Cells for Anticancer Immunotherapy: Clinical and Preclinical Approaches
title_full Targeting NK Cells for Anticancer Immunotherapy: Clinical and Preclinical Approaches
title_fullStr Targeting NK Cells for Anticancer Immunotherapy: Clinical and Preclinical Approaches
title_full_unstemmed Targeting NK Cells for Anticancer Immunotherapy: Clinical and Preclinical Approaches
title_short Targeting NK Cells for Anticancer Immunotherapy: Clinical and Preclinical Approaches
title_sort targeting nk cells for anticancer immunotherapy: clinical and preclinical approaches
topic Immunology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4838611/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27148271
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2016.00152
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