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MINI REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1592121
This article is part of the Research Topic Community Series in Immunological Precision Therapeutics: Integrating Multi-Omics Technologies and Comprehensive Approaches for Personalized Immune Intervention: Volume II View all 5 articles
Enhancing the Physiological Characteristics of Chimeric Antigen Receptor Natural Killer Cells by Synthetic Biology
Provisionally accepted- 1 AFFILIATED HOSPITAL OF SHANDONG SECOND MEDICAL UNIVERSITY, Weifang, Shandong Province, China
- 2 Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
Chimeric antigen receptor natural Killer (CAR-NK) cells therapy represents a next-generation immunotherapeutic approach following CAR-T cells therapy, offering inherent "off-the-shelf" compatibility and mitigated off-tumor toxicity. Despite these advantages, clinical translation remains constrained by poor in vivo persistence and functional exhaustion in immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments (TME). This review examines recent advancements in synthetic biology aimed at enhancing the physiological characteristics of CAR-NK cells. By delineating the synergy between NK cells and synthetic biology toolkits, this work provides a roadmap for developing next-generation CAR-NK therapies capable of addressing solid tumor challenges while maintaining favorable safety profiles.
Keywords: NK cells, Chimeric Antigen Receptor, Synthetic Biology, Immunotherapy, TME
Received: 12 Mar 2025; Accepted: 02 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ji, JIN and Cui. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
CHENG JIN, Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
Xin Jiang Cui, AFFILIATED HOSPITAL OF SHANDONG SECOND MEDICAL UNIVERSITY, Weifang, Shandong Province, China
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