Time to fight cancer by NK cells

Cancer immunotherapy is the treatment that stimulates patients’ immune system to attack cancer cells. Although both cytotoxic T cells and natural killer (NK) cells are responsible for killing cancer cells, current therapies focus on goading T cells to fight cancer. Recently in the journal Science, Ferrari de Andrade et al. reported an approach to improve NK cell-mediated recognition of tumor cells, extending the range of immunotherapies beyond T cells.

MICA and MICB are expressed by many cancer cells and can tag cells for elimination by NK cells through NKG2D receptor activation. However, tumors evade the NK cell-mediated recognition by proteolytic shedding of MICA and MICB proteins. The authors designed an antibody targeting and inhibiting the proteolytic shedding of MICA, and found that the antibody treatment not only locked MICA and MICB proteins onto the cancer cells, but also promoted NK-cell infiltration for cancer cell elimination. Moreover, the antibody treatment reduces the spread of metastatic melanoma.

They demonstrated that antibody-mediated inhibition of MICA and MICB shedding promotes NK cell-driven tumor immunity. This new cancer immunotherapy approach can be combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 to enhance the attack against cancer cells by activation of both NK cells and cytotoxic T cells.

arigo offers excellent antibodies to support the development of cancer immunotherapy and related research.

Antibodies for studying NK cell therapy

MICA antibody (ARG55874)

MICB antibody (ARG56879)

NKG2D antibody (ARG63802)