Priming NK cells for tumor destruction

Immunotherapy Some tumors can evade CD8+ T cells, which are used in several cancer immunotherapies, but natural killer (NK) cells provide another option to target such tumors for immune elimination. Nicolai et al. used several mouse models to investigate how a cyclic dinucleotide (CDN) agonist for an innate immune pathway called STING potentiates the antitumor activity of NK cells. CDN administration induced type I interferons that directly promoted NK cell activation and simultaneously enabled an indirect pathway of activation driven by induction of interleukin- 15 signaling in dendritic cells. Amplification of NK-based tumor immunity may offer a valuable adjunct to CD8+ T cell immunotherapy. Sci. Immunol. 5 , eaaz2738 (2020).