Charge-Altering Releasable Transporters Enable Specific Phenotypic Manipulation Of Resting Primary Natural Killer Cells

Natural killer (NK) cells are capable of rapid and robust cytotoxicity, making them excellent tools for immunotherapy. However, their recalcitrance to standard transfection techniques has limited both mechanistic studies and clinical applications. Current approaches for NK cell manipulation rely on viral transduction or methods requiring NK cell activation, which can alter NK cell function. Here, we report that non-viral Charge-Altering Releasable Transporters (CARTs) efficiently transfect primary human NK cells with mRNA without relying on NK cell activation.

自然杀伤细胞（natural killer, NK）具备快速且强效的细胞毒性，使其成为免疫治疗的理想工具。然而，这类细胞对常规转染技术的顽抗性极大限制了其机制研究与临床应用。当前用于NK细胞操控的技术手段主要依赖病毒转导，或是需要预先激活NK细胞的方法，而此类激活操作可能会改变NK细胞的固有功能。本研究发现，非病毒型电荷改变可释放转运体（Charge-Altering Releasable Transporters, CARTs）能够在无需激活NK细胞的前提下，高效完成原代人NK细胞的信使核糖核酸（mRNA）转染。