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Modulation of the intracellular inhibitory checkpoint SHP-1 enhances the antitumor activity of engineered NK cells

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 18, pages 1314–1316 (2021)Cite this article

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Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) that eliminate virally infected and cancerous cells. NK cells directly induce target cell death and release cytokines and chemokines that activate the adaptive arm of the immune system.1

NK cells target cells that lose the expression of major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) and are regulated by the balance of cell surface receptors, which are either stimulatory or repressive.2 Engagement of inhibitory NK cell receptors, such as killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs), by cognate MHC-I ligands, activates Src homology 2 domain (SH2)-containing protein tyrosine phosphatases (SHP-1/2), suppressing NK cell activity.3,4,5

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by Israel Science Foundation grant no. 747/13, grant no. 3-10151 from the Chief Scientist Office of the Ministry of Health, and a Taubenblatt Family Foundation Bio-Medicine excellence grant.

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  1. The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 5290002, Israel

    Aviad Ben-Shmuel, Guy Biber, Batel Sabag & Mira Barda-Saad

Authors
  1. Aviad Ben-Shmuel
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  2. Guy Biber
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  3. Batel Sabag
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  4. Mira Barda-Saad
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Contributions

M.B.S. and A.B.S. designed the research. A.B.S., G.B., and B.S. performed the experiments. ABS, GB, BS, and MBS analyzed the data. M.B.S. and A.B.S. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Mira Barda-Saad.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Ben-Shmuel, A., Biber, G., Sabag, B. et al. Modulation of the intracellular inhibitory checkpoint SHP-1 enhances the antitumor activity of engineered NK cells. Cell Mol Immunol 18, 1314–1316 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41423-020-0443-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41423-020-0443-6

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