SIR 2024
Imaging
Aydin Eresen, PhD (he/him/his)
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of California, Irvine
Financial relationships: Full list of relationships is listed on the CME information page.
Zigeng Zhang, MD
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of California, Irvine
Financial relationships: Full list of relationships is listed on the CME information page.
Guangbo Yu, MS
PhD Student
University of California, Irvine
Financial relationships: Full list of relationships is listed on the CME information page.
Nadine Abi-Jaoudeh, MD, FSIR
Professor of Radiology
University of California
Financial relationships: Full list of relationships is listed on the CME information page.
Vahid Yaghmai, n/a
Chairman of Radiology
University of California, Irvine
Disclosure information not submitted.
To engineer cytotoxic functionality of natural killer (NK) cells via activation of interleukin (IL)-12 and IL-18 cytokines against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and evaluate therapeutic response of novel NK cell immunotherapy administered via intrahepatic arterial delivery in a rat HCC model.
Materials and Methods:
N1-S1 rat HCC cell line was utilized to optimize the cell viability and cytotoxic function of the rat NK cells with varying concentrations and timing of cytokines under flow cytometry assessment. A total of twelve rats HCC models (SD rats with N1-S1 liver tumor implantation) were separated into IHA saline (control) group, IHA NK, and IHA pNK groups. The animals underwent catheter placement into the proper hepatic artery to administer saline, conventional NK cells, and cytokine-activated NK (pNK) cells. Tumor growth was monitored with a weekly MRI. To assess pairwise significance among the groups, a two-tailed Student's t-test was employed.
Results:
The cytotoxic function of NK cells was significantly enhanced by activation of IL-12 and IL-18 cytokines at a 1:8 ratio for 24 hours, achieving a delicate equilibrium between cytotoxic activity and NK cell viability. Although there was no substantial variance in terms of tumor area between the control and IHA NK cell groups, the IHA pNK treatment notably induced a significant deceleration in tumor growth (p=0.0105). Furthermore, animals treated with IHA pNK exhibited considerably smaller tumors compared to the IHA NK group (p< 0.01), underscoring the effectiveness in impeding tumor growth.
Conclusion: Cytokine activation significantly enhances the viability and effectiveness of NK cells, and the transcatheter intraarterial administration of cytokine-activated NK cells shows tremendous promise, leading to significantly improved efficacy against HCC.