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In Vitro Assay to Study Tumor-macrophage Interaction
Published on: August 1, 2019
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How chemokines organize the tumour microenvironment
Thorsten R Mempel1, Julia K Lill2, Lukas M Altenburger2
1Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. tmempel@mgh.harvard.edu.
Nature Reviews. Cancer
|December 8, 2023
Summary
Chemokines orchestrate immune cell positioning within tumors, guiding interactions crucial for anti-tumor immunity. Understanding these signals is key to developing new cancer therapies and biomarkers.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Oncology
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Immune cells must reach specific tumor sites to fight cancer.
- Interactions between immune cells, stromal cells, and cancer cells dictate treatment outcomes.
- Chemokines (chemoattractant cytokines) and their receptors guide immune cell migration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the role of chemokines in the tumor microenvironment.
- To understand how chemokines regulate immune cell positioning and function in tumors.
- To discuss recent findings on chemokines in cancer immunology.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent observations on chemokine function in the tumor microenvironment.
- Integration of knowledge on chemokines' physiological roles in development, homeostasis, and antimicrobial responses.
Main Results:
- Chemokines are critical for immune cell extravasation and migration into tumor niches.
- Chemokine-guided interactions regulate immune cell survival, proliferation, differentiation, and effector functions.
- Understanding chemokine roles informs biomarker development and therapeutic strategies.
Conclusions:
- Chemokines are essential orchestrators of the tumor immune microenvironment.
- Targeting chemokines offers potential for novel cancer immunotherapies.
- Spatial analysis of chemokines can lead to new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers.
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