Viral and Nonviral Engineering of Natural Killer Cells as Emerging Adoptive Cancer Immunotherapies

Figure 1

Diagram showing the three main approaches aimed at genetically engineering NK cells: viral transduction, electroporation (nonviral), and nanoparticle-based transduction (nonviral). These engineering approaches aim to enhance safety, improve cytotoxicity, and increase persistence of NK cells in the tumor microenvironment. NK cells respond to tumor targets by calibrating an array of inhibitory and activating receptors, which can be used in genetic engineering approaches to further direct NK cell function.