Macrophages as potential targets in gene therapy for cancer treatment

Abstract

Macrophages, as ubiquitous and functionally diverse immune cells, play a central role in innate immunity and initiate adaptive immunity. Especially, tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are crucial contributors to the tumorigenesis and development of cancer. Thus, macrophages are emerging potential targets for cancer treatment. Among the numerous targeted therapeutic options, gene therapy is one of the most potential therapeutic strategies via directly and specifically regulating biological functions of macrophages at the gene level for cancer treatment. This short review briefly introduces the characteristics of macrophage populations, the functions of TAM in the occurrence, and the progress of cancer. It also summarized some representative examples to highlight the current progress in TAM-targeted gene therapy. The review hopes to provide new insights into macrophage-targeted gene therapy for precision cancer therapy.

Macrophage diversity in human cancers: New insight provided by single-cell resolution and spatial context

“…Other promising TAM-based therapies include gene therapy with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) or non-viral vectors [ 141 , 142 ]. CAR allows gene trafficking to the tumor and phagocytosis of tumor cells [ 139 , 143 , 144 ].…”