≡ NK Cell function

• It is an innate immune cell that  protects the body from cancer cells, viruses, and inflammation.

• Unlike other immune cells of B cells or T cells, they are activated without antigen recognition. It directly attacks and destroys infected or cancerous cells.

• There are about 50,000 to 100 million cells per person, but the proportion is between 5~10% in lymphocytes.

• Actively finds cancer cells and causes target cells to apoptosis are necrosis.

[ NK cells that attack cancer cells ] 

≡ Characteristics of NK cells

• It has the ability to recognize and eliminate all foreign cells

• It is also effective for cancer prevention, removal of residual cancer after surgery, and chemotherapy.

• Immunomodulatory action.

• Recognized in terms of stability.

• Cancer cytotoxicity is 20-30% higher than that of T cells and dendritic cells.

≡ What is NK cell therapy?

Our body has an immune function, so it is protected from attacks by viruses and bacteria that invaded from the outside. cancer, chronic diseases, and infectious diseases are diseases that appear due to a decrease in immune function.

Thousands of cancer cells exist in the body of a healthy person, but the reason why we do not get cancer is because the NK cells in our body are protecting us. However, when NK cells do not function properly due to congenital factors such as family history, cell aging due to increased age, acquired causes such as various harmful environments, stress, and Western diet, cancer eventually occurs. Therefore NK cell therapy is to extract and store immune cells when they are young and healthy and then re-administer them into the body through culture and proliferation to increase the strength to fight cancer.

≡ Transdifferentiation

It is a technology that manipulates cells that have completed differentiation(mature) in higher organisms and redifferentiates them into other types of cells.

• Compared to techniques foe differentiation using induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells, there is less risk of ethical and safety issues.
• In particular, the following risks can be reduces.​​​​​​

      1. Possibility of mutant cell development due to incomplete cell differentiation manipulation
      2. Possibility of immune rejection
      3. Possibility of developing other complications after transplantation of allogeneic cells

• Unlike the process of differentiating into desired cells using induced pluripotent stem cells, cross-differentiation technology is different in that it directly induces differentiation into desired cells without going through the induced pluripotent stem cell stage.
• Currently, cross-differentiation is used for disease modeling and discovery of new drugs, and many studies are being actively conducted. It is the latest cell differentiation technology that is recognized for its potential to be applied to gene therapy and regenerative medicine in the future.