ArticleCancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII2012
IRX-2, a novel immunotherapeutic, enhances and protects NK-cell functions in cancer patients.
Article in Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cytokine Networks in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Mechanisms, Therapeutic Targets, and Emerging Strategies.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- NK cell based immunotherapy against oral squamous cell carcinoma.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Review
- Impaired intratumoral natural killer cell function in head and neck carcinoma.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- Impairment of NKG2D-Mediated Tumor Immunity by TGF-β.Frontiers in immunology · 2019Review
- IRX-2 natural cytokine biologic for immunotherapy in patients with head and neck cancers.OncoTargets and therapy · 2018Review
- Suppression of Lymphocyte Functions by Plasma Exosomes Correlates with Disease Activity in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2017Article
- Review
- Immunotherapy for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.Current oral health reports · 2016Article
- Immunostimulatory Activity of the Cytokine-Based Biologic, IRX-2, on Human Papillomavirus-Exposed Langerhans Cells.Journal of interferon & cytokine research : the official journal of the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research · 2016Article
- Article
- Immune cell infiltration patterns and survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.Head & neck oncology · 2013Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIRX-2 is a primary biologic which has been used for the therapy of head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) with promising clinical results. Since NK-cell function is compromised in HNSCC patients, we tested the effects of IRX-2 on the restoration of human NK-cell functions in vitro.
methodsPeripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated from 23 HNSCC patients and 10 normal controls (NC). The NK-cell phenotype and functions were compared before and after culture ± IRX-2 or ± 50 IU/ml rhIL-2. Flow cytometry was used to study the NK-cell phenotype, cytotoxic activity and cytokine expression.
resultsImpaired NK-cell cytotoxicity in HNSCC patients was related to lower expression of NKG2D, NKp30 and NKp46 receptors (P < 0.05) and not to a decreased frequency of NK cells. Incubation of patients' NK cells with IRX-2 up-regulated the percentage of receptor-positive NK cells (P < 0.05). It also up-regulated cytotoxicity of patients' NK cells (P < 0.01) more effectively than rhIL-2 (P < 0.01). IRX-2, but not rhIL-2, protected NK cells from suppression mediated by TGF-β, and it restored (P < 0.05) expression of activating NK-cell receptors and NK-cell cytotoxicity suppressed by TGF-β. Expression of pSMAD was decreased in NK cells treated with IRX-2 but not in those treated with rhIL-2.
conclusionsIRX-2 was more effective than IL-2 in enhancing NK-cell cytotoxicity and protecting NK-cell function of HNSCC patients in vitro, emphasizing the potential advantage of IRX-2 as a component of future therapies for HNSCC.
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Registered trials
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