Advantages of Off-the-Shelf CAR NK Therapy in B-Cell Malignancies

Bob Valamehr, PhD, chief development officer at Fate Therapeutics, discusses the advantages of off-the-shelf CAR NK therapy in B-cell malignancies.

There are several CAR NK products in development at Fate Therapeutics; some products are in clinical trials and some are in preclinical development. The NK cell has 3 modalities: CD19 to target B-cell malignancies, CD16 to be combined with monoclonal antibodies that target B-cell malignancies, and recombinant fusion of interleukin (IL)-15 and IL-15RF, which overcomes the lack of persistence of NK cells, says Valamehr. That trimodality targeted structure, combined with product’s off-the-shelf use, could provide patients with cost-effective therapy in a timely manner.

Research with this platform suggests that an adoptive cell therapy can be converted into a pharmaceutical drug product, says Valamehr. It also suggests that NK cells can be engineered to be more effective. Additionally, the product can house multiple antitumor modalities on 1 cell to overcome the heterogeneity or evolution of cancer growth, concludes Valamehr.