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Partner: NKMAX |Hölzel Diagnostika

NKMAX

NKMAX was founded in 2006. The company has the overall mission of improving health and quality of life. This will be achieved through advanced approaches in immunotherapy, diagnostic tests and research reagents.

The company developed the first immunotherapy with natural killer cells (NK cells). In doing so, NKMAX takes advantage of the strength of the body's own immune system. NK cells play an important role in the innate immune system: They are white blood cells and cytotoxic. This means, they are a kind of safety system, dedicated to search and destroy abnormal or infected cells. Such cells are rapidly and effectively destroyed by NK cells. Immunotherapy with NK cells offers three key benefits:

1. Target cells can be recognized and eliminated without specific antigens.

2. By interaction with dendritic cells (DC), macrophages and T cells, the immune and inflammatory response is controlled.

3. Proliferation, recurrence and metastasis of cancer cells are effectively inhibited.

The mechanism of NK cell activity

Without antigen stimulation, the NK cell is activated only by an interaction of surface receptors with corresponding target ligands.

When a cell expresses foreign proteins, for example after viral infection, they are presented on the cell surface as complexes. Such complexes are recognized and the associated cells are eliminated. Alternatively, certain protein complexes (class I MHC) may themselves serve as a ligand for NK cells. The reduction of normal levels of MHC-I, a mechanism used by some viruses and certain tumors, activates the killing of NK cells. An activated NK cell has two different answer options, which run in parallel. First, it secretes cytokines and chemokines that activate and control acquired immune cells. Second, they produce perforin and grazyme, which eliminate the abnormal cells.

NK cells are used in a variety of research areas, such as cancer research, autoimmune diseases, or to better understand the processes of aging.

NKMAX is mainly dedicated to NK cell activity tests. The novel cell culture technology of SuperNK® uses cytotoxicity-enhancing and proliferating agents that have both high cytotoxicity and a large number of NK cells. In addition, NKMAX provides high quality nutritional supplements to boost the immune system.

NKMAX recently expanded its business to the cell therapy market by focusing on the immune system and developing an immunotherapy called SuperNK®, which overcomes the limitations of existing NK cell therapy. NKMAX aims to provide the safest and most effective immunotherapy. We at Hölzel Diagnostika are your distribution partner for Germany, who delivers every product from NKMAX to you.