Chris Johnson, Hannah Senior, Sean Kevlahan, Nithya Jesuraj
ABSTRACT
Growing interest in Natural Killer (NK) cells for adoptive immunotherapy has stemmed from the NK cell’s innate ability to recognize and attack malignant cells. However, generating clinical-scale doses of NK cells remains a challenge for manufacturing CAR-NK cell therapies. We prepared a feeder-cell-free method to activate and expand NK cells using functionalized alginate Cloudz™ particles. We found that (1) Cloudz particles conjugated with anti-CD2 and anti-NKp46 antibodies were more effective at expanding NK cells than magnetic (iron oxide) particles and (2) a cytokine cocktail of IL-2, IL-12, IL-18, and IL-21 was effective for expanding NK cell populations.
