NKGen advances NK cell therapy for Parkinson's, "tumor killer" can also treat neurodegenerative diseases?

November 8, 2022 /eMedClub News/-- On November 4, 2022, NKGen Biotech announced a partnership with the Parkinson's Foundation.
The focus is on helping to accelerate NKGen's clinical program through its network of clinical partners and donors using its novel autologous NK cell therapy SNK01 for the treatment of advanced Parkinson's disease ( Parkinson’s disease，PD）
。

Parkinson's disease is the second most common chronic, progressively developing central neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease, affecting nearly 10 million people
worldwide.
It is estimated that the prevalence of PD in people over 65 years old in China is 1700/100,000, the prevalence of people over 70 years old is 3%~5%, and there are nearly 100,000
new cases every year.
As the world ages, the number of people suffering from the disease is likely to increase
further.

The cause of this disease is the misfolding and abnormal accumulation of α-synuclein in the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system, which further leads to progressive deterioration of motor and non-motor symptoms throughout the body, the main clinical manifestations include tremor of hands and feet, body stiffness, slow movement, etc.
, as the disease progresses, the patient's motor and reaction ability will decrease
.

At present, the clinical treatment of Parkinson's patients is mainly used in drug treatment, rehabilitation training and other methods, there is no effective means to control the disease, in recent years, stem cell therapy Parkinson's disease heat gradually rising, and NK cells are widely used in the treatment of tumors in the general cognition, and even have greater potential than CAR-T therapy in the field of solid tumors, why can this therapy be used for the treatment of Parkinson's neurodegenerative diseases?

On March 13, 2020, an article titled "NK cells clear α-synuclein and the depletion of NK cells exacerbates synuclein pathology in a mouse model of α-synucleinopathy" was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Published
in Sciences.
Studies have shown that NK cells can help clear α-synuclein, reduce inflammation produced by autologous active T cells and clear damaged neurons, which is essential
for regulating and inhibiting inflammation and abnormal protein aggregation in brain tissue.

Dr.
Paul Y.
Song, vice chairman of NKGen Biotechnology, said that the non-genetically modified, enhanced and expanded NK cell therapy SNK01 could provide a completely new treatment for Parkinson's disease and is expected to advance the company's Parkinson's treatment into the clinic
in 2023.

SNK01 is NKGen Biotech's first cell therapy candidate and has been clinically tested in multiple therapeutic areas, including solid tumors and neurodegenerative diseases
.
Among them, the purpose of clinical trials on neurodegenerative diseases is to evaluate the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy of SNK01 as a monotherapy for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's disease, and no trial data
have been published.

▲ NKGen pipeline Source: The company's official website

Patented NKGen produces billions of NK cells with high purity and receptor expression levels, while its cryopreservation process allows cells to maintain significant cytotoxicity
.
In addition to SNK01, SNK02, another of the Company's drug candidates, was approved on October 19, 2022 to evaluate the safety and tolerability of subjects with solid tumors refractory to standard of care therapy, a cryopreserved "off-the-shelf" allogeneic blood-derived NK cell therapy
.

NK cells outside of tumor treatment

NK cells are a special kind of innate immune cells, which do not need to accept special instructions of the immune system and the cooperation of other cells to identify and eliminate pathogenic microorganisms, and have three major functions
: immune surveillance, immune response and immune memory.
Most of the NK cell therapies currently under development target tumors, but this immune cell also has a unique role
in the field of anti-virus and anti-aging.

Antiviral

At present, data have shown that NK cells are effective against viruses that produce immune escape, including influenza A virus, hepatitis B virus, HIV, hepatitis C virus and new coronavirus
.
NK cells can play an immune-mediated role, regulate the body's immune status and immune function, enhance the immune system's immune response to the virus, and at the same time, this cell can control the infection of the virus through natural killing, and kill the target cells of infection through ADCC to achieve the purpose
of eliminating the virus.

Anti-aging

In March 2022, the SENS Research Foundation published a review titled "Aging of the Immune System: Focus on Natural Killer Cells Phenotype and Functions" in Cells, revealing the important role
of improving NK cell aging in treating aging-related diseases and delaying the biological aging process.

▲ Aging and NK cells Source: Reference 4

Studies have shown that aging will lead to a series of changes in the number, phenotype and function of NK cells, with the occurrence of aging, the percentage of CD56brightNK cells decreases significantly, CD56dimNK cells increase significantly, overall the number of NK cells increases, but its cytotoxicity and function have decreased, studies have shown that the cytotoxicity of K562 cancer cells decreases with the occurrence of aging
。 Currently, NK cell function
can be improved by intervening in some of the drivers of secondary aging.

brief summary

At present, the focus on NK cells is focused on its field of tumor treatment, and the advantages of this cell therapy in the treatment of solid tumors need not be repeated, and the data of numerous clinical trials show that NK cells can safely and effectively achieve the treatment
of solid tumors.
However, the ability of this immune cell is not limited to tumor treatment, but also shows certain potential in the fields of anti-virus and even anti-aging, treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, etc.
, and it is expected that with the further understanding of NK cell function and mechanism of action, this powerful immune cell can bring hope to patients in more fields
.

Resources:

1.
nkgen-biotech-announces-collaboration-with-the-parkinson-s-foundation-to-bring-its-novel-natural-killer-cell-therapy-to-the-clinic-for-advanced-parkinson-s-disease

2.
https://nkgenbiotech.
com

3.
Earls RH, Menees KB, Chung J, Gutekunst CA, Lee HJ, Hazim MG, Rada B, Wood LB, Lee JK.
NK cells clear α-synuclein and the depletion of NK cells exacerbates synuclein pathology in a mouse model of α-synucleinopathy.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.
2020 Jan 21; 117(3):1762-1771.

4.
1.
Brauning A, Rae M, Zhu G, et al.
Aging of the Immune System: Focus on Natural Killer Cells Phenotype and Functions[J].
Cells, 2022, 11(6):1017.