{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]],"date-time":"2026-07-29T21:46:05Z","timestamp":1785361565077,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,12]],"date-time":"2026-01-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1768176000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Immunol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T or natural killer (NK) cells are a promising approach for cancer immunotherapy. The leading region of the CAR structure is generally a single-chain antibody (scFv) fragment specific for a tumor cell surface molecule, and other structures are rarely reported.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>In this study, we developed a novel anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) CAR-NK cell using an affibody molecule as the extracellular targeting domain instead of a conventional scFv. Affibody-based CAR-NK cells were generated from the NK-92 cell line. To enhance safety, CAR-NK cells were subjected to \u03b3-irradiation, and their antitumor activity was further evaluated in combination with doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded nanoparticles.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Affibody-based CAR-NK cells exhibited effective cytotoxicity against HER2-positive breast cancer cells, comparable to that of anti-HER2 scFv-based CAR-NK cells. \u03b3-Irradiation at 10 Gy effectively inhibited malignant proliferation of CAR-NK cells but significantly reduced their cytotoxic activity. Notably, incorporation of DOX-loaded nanoparticles markedly enhanced the killing capacity of irradiated CAR-NK cells, restoring and even amplifying their antitumor efficacy.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>These findings demonstrate that affibody-based CAR-NK cells are a viable alternative to conventional scFv-based CAR constructs. Moreover, the combination of CAR-NK immunotherapy with chemotherapeutic nanomedicine effectively compensates for irradiation-induced cytotoxicity attenuation, offering a promising synergistic strategy for the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2025.1692107","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,12]],"date-time":"2026-01-12T08:11:30Z","timestamp":1768205490000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Construction of anti-HER2 affibody-directed CAR-NK and its synergistic effects with doxorubicin-loaded nanodrug against HER2-positive breast 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