AUTHOR=Ruggeri Loredana , Parisi Sarah , Urbani Elena , Curti Antonio 

TITLE=Alloreactive Natural Killer Cells for the Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: From Stem Cell Transplantation to Adoptive Immunotherapy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=Volume 6 - 2015

YEAR=2015

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2015.00479

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2015.00479

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=Natural killer cells express activating and inhibitory receptors which recognize MHC class I alleles, termed “Killer cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptors” (KIRs). Preclinical and clinical data from haploidentical T-cell depleted stem cell transplantation have demonstrated that alloreactive KIR-L mismatched natural killer cells play a major role as effectors against acute myeloid leukemia. Outside the transplantation setting, several reports have proven the safety and feasibility of natural killer cell infusion in acute myeloid leukemia patients and, in some cases, provided evidence that transferred NK cells are functionally alloreactive and may have a role in disease control. Aim of the present work is to briefly summarize the most recent advances in the field by moving from the first preclinical and clinical demonstration of donor NK alloreactivity in the transplantation setting to the most recent attempts of exploiting the use of alloreactive NK cell infusion as a means of adoptive immunotherapy against acute myeloid leukemia. Altogether, these data highlight the pivotal role of NK cells for the development of novel immunological approaches in the clinical management of acute myeloid leukemia.