Natural killer cell therapy: A great therapeutic approach for cancer

Introduction Natural killer cells or NK cells are a type of cytotoxic lymphocyte critical to the innate immune system. NK cells are defined as large granular lymphocytes and constitute the third kind of cells differentiated from the common lymphoid progenitor-generating B and T lymphocytes. In addition to the knowledge that natural killer cells are effectors of innate immunity, recent research has uncovered information on both activating and inhibitory NK cell receptors which play important functional roles, including self-tolerance and the sustaining of NK cell activity. Different techniques such as, using different cytokines, small molecules, co-culture with other cell lines, using different genetic editing techniques have been used for activation or inhibition of these cells for therapeutic goals.MethodsRelevant English-language literature were searched and retrieved from PubMed search engine (200-2018). The following keywords were used: Natural Killer Cells , Cancer and Therapy .ResultsThere are many published articles about using NK cells for the treatment of different cancers such as, breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, multiple myeloma, lymphoma, leukemia etc. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Nowadays, Royan Institute has been carrying out extensive projects in this field and the results will be reported in a near future.ConclusionDue to the large amount of clinical research carried out on natural killer cells, these cells can be considered as a powerful cell therapy tool which hope to eliminate many cancers

Keywords:

Natural killer cells , Cancer , Cell therapy