Kill the Killers: terapia con células Natural Killer en pacientes pediátricos con cáncer refractario

introduction: refractory solid tumours lead children deaths. to change this statement, new treatments should be developed. natural killer cells constitute the first line of defence against tumour cells. we propose a new strategy for antitumor cell therapy in children with refractory solid malignancies: il-15 stimulated nk cells. patients and methods: 22 paediatric patients suffering refractory solid tumours participate in this study. we compare nk cell subsets and k562 cytotoxicity in patients and sex-age pair's healthy controls. we use multiparametric flow and time-resolved fluorescent, respectively. in immunocompromised mice we developed an aggressive human metastatic neuroblastoma model and il-15 stimulated nk cells rescue. results: patients had higher nk bright cells subset and lower nk cytotoxicity than healthy controls. il-15 stimulated nk cells improved nk cell cytotoxicity in vitro and decreased tumour burden in vivo. conclusions: il-15 stimulated nk cells may constitute a new cell therapy tool for paediatric refractory tumours.