Skip to content
#gene editing Open access

Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived chimeric antigen receptor natural killer cells: Engineering innovations, translational hurdles and clinical prospects in immune therapy

Aug 2026 · World Journal of Stem Cells
CAR-T cell therapy research

Abstract

Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived chimeric antigen receptor natural killer (iPSC-CAR-NK) cells are an evolving off-the-shelf cellular immunotherapy platform with potential for scalable manufacturing, product standardization, and multiplex engineering.This review summarizes recent progress in clinical-grade manufacturing, quality-attribute definition, and natural killer cell-adapted engineering strategies, including chimeric antigen receptor design, gene editing, tumor microenvironment adaptation, single-cell and multi-omics-guided optimization, and synthetic biologybased control.In addition, this review discusses recent progress in the application of iPSC-CAR-NK cells to hematologic malignancies and solid tumors and cautiously examines the early translational signal suggested by a single compassionate-use report in systemic sclerosis.To move beyond a descriptive listing of engineering strategies, we propose a multilevel analytical framework encompassing product definition, effector execution, tissue delivery, host interaction, and translational implementation.This framework is used to evaluate the functional roles, interrelationships, and limiting factors of engineering modules during clinical translation.Current evidence suggests manageable safety profiles and preliminary antitumor or immunomodulatory activity in some settings, but major barriers remain, including limited persistence, insufficient solidtumor infiltration, host immune clearance, antigen escape, multiplex-engineering risks, and immature quality-control and regulatory standards.

Read PDF

Similar papers

#gene editing Review Sep 2026

Unlocking non-model organisms with CRISPR-Cas: A roadmap for sustainable biotechnology.

It is concluded that bridging the gap between foundational CRISPR research and its real-world applications is imperative and future efforts should focus on democratizing tools via open-source platforms, advancing delivery systems, and fostering sustainable innovation through synthetic biology integration to fully realize the transformative potential of genome editing in organisms beyond model organisms.

S. Sarsaiya, Archana Jain, Jishuang Chen et al. · 2 citations
#gene editing Review Open access Aug 2026

Overcoming Therapy Resistance in Ovarian Cancer: From Molecular Mechanisms to Emerging Therapeutic Strategies

This review summarizes emerging therapeutic strategies for EOC, their mechanisms of action, and their potential to overcome treatment resistance, and covers molecularly targeted therapies, immunotherapies, metabolic and epigenetic approaches, cellular and gene therapies, targeted drug-delivery systems, and locoregional and physical modalities.

Zofia Pietrasik, Mikołaj Kapała, Joanna Pietrasik et al. · 0 citations
#gene editing Review Open access Aug 2026

Environmental Risk Assessment and Confinement of Genetically Engineered Trees with an Emphasis on Vegetative Reproduction.

Genetic engineering (GE) and gene editing may endow traits to trees such as increased biomass and the production of novel biomaterials. Long-lived organisms such as trees might be subject to biotechnology-related risks that could be different than those of annual row crops. Those risks could be relevant to production in engineered plantations and beyond plantations to natural forests. Therefore, appropriate risk regulation is important to assure biosafety of commercialized engineered trees. In addition to gene flow via sexual reproduction, vegetative reproduction might play an additional role in environmental "exposure" risk relative to transgene dispersal in GE tree plantations. While vegetative reproduction is beneficial for preserving desired genetic traits during tree propagation, it may lead to proximal clonal spread in the field. Although the environmental risks associated with vegetative reproduction of GE trees are recognized in commercial forestry, there are few field-based environmental risk assessment (ERA) studies on dispersal risks of self-propagated GE trees. GE or gene editing of target genes involved in the vegetative propagation processes may be useful to mitigate environmental risks of clonal spread through vegetative reproduction. This review provides updates for recent field test results of GE and gene edited trees. Gene candidates related to vegetative reproduction including adventitious shooting (AS) and adventitious rooting (AR) are discussed herein as a means to mitigate unintended clonal spread from GE tree plantations.

Yongil Yang, C. N. Stewart · 0 citations
#gene editing Open access Aug 2026

Programmable RNA targeting with clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) effector Cas7-11 in zebrafish embryos and mammalian cells

Findings establish Cas7-11 as a precise and efficient RNA knockdown tool for functional studies in embryonic development and stem cell biology, providing a versatile alternative to DNA-based gene-editing approaches.

Huan Yan, Imtiaz Ul Hassan, Kai Yan et al. · 0 citations

Related blog posts

MIT News · Artificial Intelligence Aug 17, 2026

Q&A: Rethinking how innovation happens

In his latest book, Professor Eugene Fitzgerald examines the forces that turn breakthroughs into value — and why innovation resists simple formulas.