Umbilical cord blood natural killer cells for adoptive immunotherapy: identifying optimal starting material and processing parameters

Journal article

Introduction: Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is an attractive source of natural killer (NK) cells for the development of allogeneic ‘off-the-shelf’ cancer immunotherapies. This is due to the relatively high proportion of highly proliferative NK cells compared to adult peripheral blood (APB), a low risk of graft-versus-host disease and ease of procurement. However, due to the limited starting volume of UCB and naïve phenotype of isolated cells, ex vivo NK cell expansion and activation is essential to generate clinically relevant doses of cells with potent anti-tumor activity. Furthermore, intrinsic variability in both in vitro and clinical performance of NK cells from different UCB units (CBUs) has been reported. Methods: To better characterize this variability, we measured UCB NK cell ex vivo fold expansion, phenotype and cytotoxic potential using a basic expansion system. We then used these results to identify characteristics related to superior performance, enabling the optimization, selection and processing of CBUs for the manufacture of NK cells as therapies at a larger scale. Results: Our results revealed that despite wide inter-donor variability in performance between CBUs, a priori selection could be used to identify units likely to show high expansion and/or cytotoxicity. We observed that decreased time between UCB collection and CD3- UCB mononuclear cell (CBMC) isolation was associated with significantly higher NK fold expansion (n=13; p<0.05). Furthermore, a cryopreservation step following early isolation and prior to expansion, significantly increased the expansion potential of the isolated NK cells (p<0.05), thus providing an opportunity for pre-selection and parallel culture of multiple optimal units. Finally, the NK cells from CBUs collected from caesarean sections had statistically significantly increased proliferative potential compared to those from vaginal deliveries (n=13; p<0.05). Conclusion: In conclusion, early isolation and cryopreservation of CD3- CBMCs from caesarean section CBUs offer an optimal starting material for use in UCB-derived NK cell immunotherapies, providing superior ex vivo performance and enabling batch testing to selectively expand cells from CBUs with the greatest potential.

Authors: Kennedy, MG; Patterson, W; Cox, ST; Wynn, L; Stock da Cunha, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Frontiers Media
• Journal: Frontiers in Immunology
• Volume: 16
• Article number: 1734453
• Publication date: 2026-01-13
• Acceptance date: 2025-12-17
• DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1734453
• EISSN: 1664-3224
• ISSN: 1664-3224
• Language: English
• Keywords: natural killer cells; adoptive cell therapy; umbilical cord blood; cell donor selection; cryopreservation