NKGen Biotech presents troculeucel mechanism of action

NKGen Biotech (NKGN) announced the presentation of a poster entitled, “Mechanism of Action of Troculeucel in Alzheimer’s Disease Confirmed by Corresponding Phase I Biomarker Data” at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2025, AAIC 2025, held in Toronto, Canada and online from July 27-31, 2025. Troculeucel is a first-in-kind, autologous, non-genetically modified NK cell product with significantly increased cytotoxicity and over 90% activating receptor expression that can be consistently produced from any donor. Preclinical and clinical trial data on the effect of troculeucel from two Phase 1 studies were presented to highlight the mechanism of action and confirmatory biomarker data from 13 patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Troculeucel was found to exhibit over 99% DNAM-1 and NKG2D expression, by which NK cells recognize and engage autoreactive T cells while sparing resting T cells, which do not express these ligands. In vitro studies demonstrated that troculeucel was selectively activated in the presence of activated T cells, as evidenced by increased interferon-gamma production, elevated cytotoxicity, and enhanced CD107a expression. These findings suggest that troculeucel may reduce neuroinflammation by preferentially eliminating autoreactive T cells while preserving non-pathogenic resting T cells.