mRNA Transfection to Improve NK Cell Homing to Tumors.

The ability of natural killer (NK) cells to mediate antitumor effects following adoptive transfer is dependent on their capacity to traffic to the microenvironment where tumors reside. Recent studies have shown that cytokine-activated and ex vivo-expanded NK cells lack or express at low levels homing receptors required to achieve tissue-specific tumor targeting by cells administered intravenously. In this chapter, we describe a method to enhance NK cell homing toward specific chemoattractants expressed in secondary lymphoid tissues through genetic modification of NK cells using mRNA electroporation. The method described here is scalable, cGMP-compliant, and offers a strategy to bolster the efficacy of adoptive NK cell immunotherapy for the treatment of hematological malignancies in the clinic.