The targeting of tumor-associated macrophages by vaccination.

Mads Hald Andersen

doi:10.15698/cst2019.05.185

Abstract

Many different therapeutic strategies focus on targeting tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), due to their vital role in creating an immune suppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) with the aim to deplete, repro-gram or target the functional mediators secreted by these cells. Immune modulatory vaccination is an emerging strategy to target immune suppressive myeloid populations in the TME. In contrast to the other clinical strategies that target TAMs, this combines both TAM depletion (through direct killing by cytotoxic T cells) and TAM reprogramming (by introducing pro-inflammatory cytokines into the immune suppressive microenvironment).

Highlights

Immune suppressive myeloid cells include a heterogenous population of cells that include tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs)
Antiregulatory T cells are defined as cells that can react to regulatory immune cells, including TAMs, and restrict the range of immunosuppressive signals mediated by such cells [4, 5]
The first clinical testing of IDO vaccinations was performed in patients with non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC; NCT01543464) [6]

Summary

Introduction

Immune suppressive myeloid cells include a heterogenous population of cells that include tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). Many studies have focused on anti-TAM strategies that aimed to deplete or reprogram these cells or target the functional mediators secreted by these cells [3]. Immune modulatory vaccination is a novel unorthodox way of targeting the cancer-associated myeloid cell populations in the tumor microenvironment (TME).

Results

Conclusion