UCLA

Advances in understanding anti-tumor responses and cancer biology has revealed a dynamic interaction between immune effector cells like natural killer cells and cancer target cells. Natural killer cells are part of the innate immune system and targets cancer stem cells (CSCs) and healthy, non-transformed stem cells via secreted and membrane-bound IFN-γ and TNF-α. Probiotic bacteria has induced split-anergy in NK, thus having an increase in cytokine IFN-γ secretion leading to differentiation of CSCs. This innovative method of expanding large number of functional NK cells with the addition of probiotics is a breakthrough for adoptive NK immunotherapy. In this study, NK immunotherapy was studied in combination with supplementation of probiotic bacteria in pancreatic cancer patients and in a humanized mouse model. NK immunotherapy increased cytokine production in immune tissue of subjects, while probiotic supplementation further enhanced these effects, resulting in more differentiated tumors in vivo.