Pharmacologically upregulated carcinoembryonic antigen-expression enhances the cytolytic activity of genetically-modified chimeric antigen receptor NK-92MI against colorectal cancer cells

Background The natural killer cell line, NK-92MI, is cytotoxic against various types of cancer. The aim of this study was to develop chimeric antigen receptor-modified (CAR) NK-92MI cells targeting carcinoembryonic antigen-expressing (CEA) tumours and increase killing efficacy by pharmacologically modifying CEA-expression.