Development of anti-cancer drugs for tumor-associated macrophages: a comprehensive review and mechanistic insights

Bingjun Bai; Shangzhi Xie; Ya Wang; Fei Wu; Yao Chen; Jia Bian; Xing Gao

doi:10.3389/fmolb.2024.1463061

Development of anti-cancer drugs for tumor-associated macrophages: a comprehensive review and mechanistic insights

Front Mol Biosci. 2024 Dec 9:11:1463061. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2024.1463061. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Bingjun Bai^#¹, Shangzhi Xie^#², Ya Wang³, Fei Wu⁴, Yao Chen⁵, Jia Bian⁶, Xing Gao⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Colorectal Surgery, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
² Institute of Genomic Medicine, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
³ Department of Hospital Infection-Control, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Institute of Systemic Medicine, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
⁵ Department of Medical Oncology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁶ Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, The Affiliated People's Hospital of Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.
⁷ Department of Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

This review provides an in-depth summary of the development of anti-cancer drugs for tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), with a particular focus on the development and tissue specialization of macrophages, and factors influencing the polarization of M1 and M2 macrophages, and mechanistic insights underlying the targeting therapeutic approaches. TAMs, pivotal in the tumor microenvironment, exhibit notable plasticity and diverse functional roles. Influenced by the complex milieu, TAMs polarize into M1-type, which suppresses tumors, and M2-type, which promotes metastasis. Notably, targeting M2-TAMs is a promising strategy for tumor therapy. By emphasizing the importance of macrophages as a therapeutic target of anti-cancer drugs, this review aims to provide valuable insights and research directions for clinicians and researchers.

Keywords: M1 and M2 macrophages; TAMs-targeted therapies; macrophage polarization; tumor microenvironment (TME); tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs).

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by Zhejiang Provincial Medical and Health Technology Plan Project (ID: 2023KY302).