Bar-Ilan University’s Nanoparticles Revitalize Exhausted NK Cells To Fight Cancer‌ ‌

Prof. Mira Barda-Saad from the Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar Ilan University. BIU

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It’s not just our minds and bodies that get exhausted when battling cancer, it’s also the natural killer (NK) cells of our bodies – a key component of the immune system – that get fatigued and lose function when they have to keep fighting the disease.

Now, a new study at Bar-Ilan University offers a novel method to rejuvenate NK cells using nanoparticles, restoring their vitality to give them the strength to keep fighting cancer cells.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease. In 2024, the American Cancer Society estimates that there will be two million new cancer cases in the country – around 5,480 new diagnoses every day.

NK cells are a key component of the immune system, and are crucial for identifying and destroying cancerous and viral cells.

In recent years, doctors have begun working with immunotherapeutic strategies, such as the Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) approach, to extract patient cells, modify them genetically in a laboratory to enhance their ability to combat cancer cells, and then reintroduce them into the body.

New research has shown, however, that the lymphocytes – either T cells or NK cells, including the engineered NK cells – can become fatigued from continuously battling tumors and subsequently lose their function.

To bypass this process, Prof. Mira Barda-Saad and a team of researchers at the Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences identified the underlying causes of NK cell dysfunction and developed a novel solution.

They use nanoparticles that target and silence negative regulators and restore NK cell activity directly within the patient’s body, bypassing the need for cell extraction and genetic modification.