Nanobiomaterials to modulate natural killer cell responses for effective cancer immunotherapy

Natural killer (NK) cells have emerged as a major target for cancer immunotherapies, particularly as cellular therapy modalities because they have relatively less toxicity than T lymphocytes. However, NK cell-based therapy suffers from many challenges, including problems with its activation, resistance to genetic engineering, and large-scale expansion needed for therapeutic purposes. Recently, nanobiomaterials have emerged as a promising solution to control the challenges associated with NK cells. This focused review summarises the recent advances in the field and highlights current and future perspectives of using nanobiomaterials to maximise anticancer responses of NK cells for safe and effective immunotherapy. Finally, we provide our opinion on the role of smart materials in activating NK cells as a potential cellular therapy of the future. Natural killer (NK) cells have the potential to directly lyse cancer cells, resulting in enhanced immunoprotection against tumour cells.The therapeutic potential of NK cells against tumour cells can be augmented using different activating signalling pathways on NK cells. However, to achieve translation goals, the poor expansion and proliferation of NK cells should be addressed.Emerging materials with their multifaceted properties and biocompatibility have demonstrated promising results to augment NK cell functions such as their expansion, activation, and migration toward tumour sites, showing a promising future for nanobiomaterials in the field of cancer immunotherapy.