TECHNOLOGY

Power of Natural Killer Cells

Cell therapy, a new approach that uses immune cells to attack tumors, has emerged as one of the most promising breakthroughs in cancer treatment. First generation approaches have focused on T-cells, which have shown great promise in hematologic malignancies but are plagued with unwanted side effects and, to date, have not shown similar activity in solid tumors. Nkarta was founded to address these limitations through the application of next generation technologies. NK cells are the body’s first line of defense against viral infections and cancerous cells with an innate ability to rapidly seek and destroy transformed cells. NK cell therapy has the potential to 1) target multiple pathogenic antigens with measurably more efficient cytotoxicity, 2) be better controlled to reduce risk of cytokine storms and 3) be produced from a variety of sources without relying on patient-specific immune cells. Nkarta’s proprietary NK cell therapy platform is designed to maximize the therapeutic effect of allogeneic NK cells through robust expansion, enhanced targeting and extended persistence of these potent immune cells to unleash a powerful and sustained anti-cancer immune-mediated attack.

Nkarta CAR-NKs: engineered to enhance activity

	Approved CAR-T Therapies	Allo CAR-T Therapies	NK Cell	Car-NK Cells
Opportunity for Improved Solid Tumor Activity				✓
Persistence	✓✓	✓		✓
Low GVHD Risk	✓	TBD	✓	✓
Low Risk of CRS or Neurotoxicity			✓	✓
Allogeneic, Off-the-Shelf Manufacturing		✓		✓
Cost of Manufacturing	+++	++	++	+

Nkarta’s platform is designed to generate CAR-NKs engineered to address the limitations of current CAR-T therapies, including safety concerns, tumor targeting, manufacturing time and COGS
 

Nkarta engineered CAR-NK CELLS

Nkarta’s off-the-shelf Allogeneic Manufacturing

1 | Collect & Isolate NK cells collected from healthy donors by leukapheresis.	2 | Activate NK cell expansion using proprietary stimulatory cells.	3 | Engineer Expanded NK cells are transduced to express mbIL-15 and CAR.	4 | Expand Continued expansion driven by mbIL-15.	5 | Cryopreserve Harvesting and cryopreservation of final cell product.	6 | Thaw & Administer NK product candidate is thawed for off-the-shelf administration to patients.

For patients who are affected by cancer or autoimmune diseases, the immune response is not sufficient to address the disease. Nkarta is developing proprietary methods of boosting the immune response through allogeneic, off-the-shelf NK cell-based therapies. The company’s novel and differentiated technology is focused on producing a therapy that overcomes the challenges of the naturally-occurring immune response, which include:

• Engineering enhanced NK cell recognition of their tumor targets,
• Generating an abundant supply of allogeneic NK cells,
• Improving their persistence for sustained activity in the body.

Nkarta’s goal is to offer a versatile and robust approach to disease treatments that is easily combined with other therapies for allogeneic applications to ultimately improve outcomes for patients.