Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Jun 29, 2026 1 hour, 13 minutes ago
Thailand Medical: A team of Thailand medical researchers has successfully developed a new method for creating highly functional natural killer (NK) cells from blood-forming stem cells, offering fresh hope for improving cancer immunotherapy in patients with difficult-to-treat blood cancers. The achievement could help overcome several major challenges that currently limit the effectiveness of existing cell-based cancer treatments.
Thailand researchers successfully created potent natural killer cells from blood stem cells that efficiently
attacked leukemia cells in laboratory testing, paving the way for future cancer immunotherapies
The study was conducted by
Thailand Medical researchers from the Hematology Unit, Division of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University; the Stem Cell Laboratory, Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Excellence Center, Songklanagarind Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University; and the Thailand Hub of Talents in Cancer Immunotherapy (TTCI), Bangkok.
Overcoming the Limits of Current Cell Therapies
CAR-T cell therapy has transformed the treatment of certain blood cancers, but it is not suitable for every patient. Many individuals who have undergone repeated chemotherapy have weakened immune cells that are difficult to collect and expand for treatment. In addition, CAR-T therapy can sometimes trigger severe side effects, including dangerous inflammatory reactions and neurological complications.
To address these problems, the Thai researchers turned their attention to natural killer cells, a specialized group of immune cells that naturally recognize and destroy abnormal cells, including cancer cells, without requiring prior exposure to them. Unlike T cells, NK cells also have a much lower risk of causing serious immune complications, making them attractive candidates for next-generation cancer immunotherapy.
Creating Functional NK Cells from Stem Cells
The research team collected mobilized blood-forming stem cells from five patients with multiple myeloma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma. All participants had already undergone intensive chemotherapy before donating their stem cells, making this an especially challenging test of the manufacturing process.
Using a specially designed two-step laboratory protocol lasting 28 days, the scientists guided the stem cells through early immune development before converting them into mature NK cells. The newly generated cells were then exposed to a combination of immune-stimulating cytokines and specialized feeder cells, resulting in an impressive average expansion of approximately 290-fold.
Remarkably, even stem cells collected from heavily pretreated cancer patients were capable of producing substantial numbers of NK cells. This demonstrates that stem cells remain a practical source for manufacturing cancer-fighting immune cells even after extensive chemotherapy.
Newly Generated Cells Show Strong Cancer-Fighting Potential
The laboratory-grown NK cells displayed several characteristics that could make them valuable for future cancer therapies.
Although they remained relatively immature compared with conventional NK cells collected directly from peripheral blood, they expressed lower levels of inhibitory receptors such as NKG2A, KIR2DL and CD94. They also showed reduced levels of exhaustion markers including PD-1, TIM-3, LAG3 and CTLA-4, proteins that often limit the long-term effectiveness of immune cells during cancer treatment.
The researchers also found that the new NK cells expressed high levels of CD62L, an important molecule that helps immune cells migrate through the body and reach tumors. At the same time, they maintained strong expression of activation and degranulation markers including CD69 and CD107a, suggesting they were fully capable of launching rapid attacks against cancer cells.
In this Medical News report, one of the most significant findings was that these laboratory-produced NK cells were not only successfully generated but also retained powerful biological activity. When exposed to leukemia cells, they produced important immune molecules such as interferon-gamma, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and perforin at levels similar to conventional NK cells. While conventional NK cells produced somewhat higher amounts of granzyme B, the stem cell-derived NK cells still demonstrated highly effective immune function.
Direct laboratory testing confirmed that the newly generated NK cells destroyed leukemia cells as efficiently as standard peripheral blood NK cells across multiple effector-to-target ratios. The researchers also observed more consistent activation responses between different donors, suggesting these cells may provide reliable anti-cancer activity despite differences in patients' treatment histories.
A Promising Future for Cancer Immunotherapy
The findings suggest that stem cell-derived NK cells could become an important alternative source for future NK cell therapies and genetically engineered CAR-NK treatments. Their combination of strong anti-tumor activity, lower expression of inhibitory and exhaustion markers, and improved expansion capability makes them particularly attractive for developing safer and more widely available immune-based cancer treatments.
Conclusion
Although the study involved only a small number of patients and additional animal studies and clinical trials will be needed before the technology reaches hospitals, the findings represent an important step forward for cancer immunotherapy. The researchers demonstrated that even stem cells collected from heavily pretreated blood cancer patients can be transformed into large numbers of highly functional NK cells capable of effectively attacking leukemia cells. If future studies confirm these encouraging results, this approach could help produce next-generation CAR-NK therapies that are easier to manufacture, safer than current cell therapies, and more accessible to patients worldwide.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/27/13/5836
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Read Also:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/thailand-medical
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/stem-cell-therapies
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/cancer
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