In Trondheim, Norway, 2004
NK stands for Natural Killer. Although a B grade slasher movie leaps to
mind when you first encounter this acronym, NK also can denote a type of immune
cell. Like the rest of the immune system,
NK cells turn their back on cancer cells – unless they are tweaked. It turns out that they CAN be tweaked,
thereby producing things called CAR NK cells, directed to go after specific
cancer cells. As you certainly know by
now, CAR stands for chimeric antigen receptor, as in CAR T, which we have
discussed several times before.
Apparently CAR NK immunotherapy potentially has the advantage of being
less toxic than with CAR T treatment – but much more work and many clinical trials
loom in the future.
If you want to bone up on CAR T, you can begin here:
Here is a little about CAR NK:
Here is an in-depth article on recent developments in cancer immunotherapy involving NK cells. Well worth reading
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/engineered-natural-killer-cells-may-be-next-great-cancer-immunotherapy
Dr. Collins weighs in with some cool facts about Natural Killer cells and CAR NK
ReplyDeletehttps://directorsblog.nih.gov/2018/10/18/fighting-cancer-with-natural-killer-cells/
And even more on NK cells:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180628171432.htm