Researchers at McGill University report a drug-based method to temporarily enhance natural killer (NK) cells—an immune cell type—by inhibiting two proteins, improving the cells’ ability to attack several aggressive cancers in preclinical experiments.
Scientists at McGill University’s Rosalind & Morris Goodman Cancer Institute, working with the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, reported a strategy to strengthen the cancer-fighting activity of natural killer (NK) cells by using small-molecule drugs to temporarily inhibit two proteins.
In preclinical studies, the team said NK cells sourced from donated umbilical cord blood showed increased ability to kill human cancer cells from several aggressive cancers—including leukemia, glioblastoma, kidney cancer and triple-negative breast cancer—and the approach also slowed tumor growth in animal models.
The researchers described the technique as a reversible alternative to permanent genetic modification of immune cells, and said they hope to advance the work toward future clinical testing, with acute myeloid leukemia proposed as an early target pending funding and regulatory approvals.