Cytokine-Induced NK Cell Expansion Technology

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All products and services are For Research Use Only and CANNOT be used in the treatment or diagnosis of disease.

With the remarkable success of CAR-T cells for treating hematological malignancies, cell‑based adoptive immunotherapy is considered a promising treatment for various cancer types. Adoptive transfer of NK cells is a rapidly growing interest in developing CAR-engineered NK (CAR-NK) cells for adoptive immunotherapy. However, due to the lack of a unified standard protocols for producing a large number of clinical-grade effector cells, it still remains challenging to transfer the bench-top expansion protocols to clinically applicable methods for NK cell-based therapy.

At Creative Biolabs, we validated NK expansion protocols based on cytokine cocktails, which enables easily NK expansion in vitro from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). The optimized protocols allow for large-scale NK cell ex vivo expansion for adoptive immunotherapy as a clinical application. These cytokine-induced NK cells exhibit increased antitumor effects and proliferation and are ready for preclinical and clinical applications.

Principle of Cytokine-Induced NK Cell Expansion

Studies have shown that a variety of cytokines can regulate the development, proliferation, and activation of NK cells. Previous studies conducted with cytokine-stimulated NK cells or PBMC have shown the safety of this method and demonstrated some clinical responses after adoptive NK cell transfer. In addition, groundbreaking studies have shown that IL-2-induced NK cell activation can induce remission in AML patients without causing graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Therefore, NK cells are promising candidates for the treatment of hematological malignancies.

Cytokines regulate expansion and cytotoxicity of NK cell. (Wu, et al., 2017)

Fig.1 Cytokine regulation of NK cell expansion and cytotoxicity.¹

Our Protocol Strategies

The adoptive transfer of ex vivo expanded NK cells requires enhanced natural cytotoxicity and homing to tumor sites while maintaining "self" protection. There are several validated protocols for the expansion of NK cells ex vivo, all of which have specific characteristics and functions. At Creative Biolabs, we provide a comprehensive overview of the cytokine cocktails combination strategies and are committed to developing viable NK expansion strategies to meet the needs of customers. Currently, we provide the following ex vivo NK cell expansion protocols starting with purified NK cells (Fig.2) or PBMC (Fig.3):

In vitro expansion of natural killer (NK) cells using cytokines using NK cells. (Granzin, et al., 2017)

Fig.2 Ex vivo expansion of pure natural killer (NK) cells with cytokines starting with purified NK cells.²

In vitro expansion of pure natural killer (NK) cells using cytokines using PBMCs. (Granzin, et al., 2017)

Fig.3 Ex vivo expansion of pure natural killer (NK) cells with cytokines starting with purified PBMCs.²

Advantages of Our Expanded NK Cells

Manufacturing of NK cells based on CBL's platform is feasible and effective
Robust cytotoxicity and antitumor activity
Enhanced effector function
Long-term in vivo persistence
Consist phenotype
No viable cells are mixed with the expanded NK cells
Highly purified NK cells with lesser T-cell contamination

If you are interested in our services, please send an email to contact us, and our team will get back to you as soon as possible.

Reference

Wu, Yang et al. "Developmental and functional control of natural killer cells by cytokines." Frontiers in immunology vol. 8 930.
Granzin, Markus et al. "Shaping of natural killer cell antitumor activity by ex vivo cultivation." Frontiers in immunology vol. 8 458.