CAR-NK Cells

ProMab Biotechnologies has generated chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) specific for a variety of target antigens, many of which are overexpressed on tumor cells. These target antigens include CD19, CD22, CD133, Her-2, EGFR, Mesothelin, and more. The CARs are modified in a number of ways, including using different costimulatory domains to alter functional responses or incorporating non-immunogenic tags for CAR identification and selection. Some of our CARs are expressed alongside other proteins, like GFP or truncated EGFR.

ProMab does not currently offer off-the-shelf CAR-NK cells, but produces CAR-NK cells on a contract basis. Simply pick your CAR from Car-T Cells for Research | ProMab and let us know how many cells you need. We generate our NK cells from healthy donors using irradiated feeder cells, which cause the NK cells to proliferate for 3-4 weeks. In this time, the NK cells expand over 1000-fold.

CAR expression is achieved by either transfection with mRNA-LNPs or transduction with replication-defective lentivirus. The former causes nearly all the cells to express the CAR transiently (2-7 days) and the latter causes a variable subset of the cells to express the CAR indefinitely.

Because NK cells themselves are reactive for tumor cells, activated NK cells should be used as a negative control alongside the CAR-NK cells to evaluate CAR-dependent versus CAR-independent effects. For a more stringent control, NK cells expressing a mock CAR can be used, as they contain a CAR but do not possess an antigen-binding domain. Simply let us know which negative control you want to use.