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Patient-specific vascularized tumor model: Blocking monocyte recruitment with multispecific antibodies targeting CCR2 and CSF-1R

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA. Electronic address: htn@mit.edu.
  • 2Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
  • 3Marengo Therapeutics, 840 Memorial Dr, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
  • 4Department of Medical Oncology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
  • 5Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA; Department of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada. Electronic address: mark.gillrie@ucalgary.ca.
  • 6Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA. Electronic address: rdkamm@mit.edu.

Published on:

August 17, 2024

Abstract

Tumor-associated inflammation drives cancer progression and therapy resistance, often linked to the infiltration of monocyte-derived tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), which are associated with poor prognosis in various cancers. To advance immunotherapies, testing on immunocompetent pre-clinical models of human tissue is crucial. We have developed an in vitro model of microvascular networks with tumor spheroids or patient tissues to assess monocyte trafficking into tumors and evaluate immunotherapies targeting the human tumor microenvironment. Our findings demonstrate that macrophages in vascularized breast and lung tumor models can enhance monocyte recruitment via CCL7 and CCL2, mediated by CSF-1R. Additionally, a multispecific antibody targeting CSF-1R, CCR2, and neutralizing TGF-β (CSF1R/CCR2/TGF-β Ab) repolarizes TAMs towards an anti-tumoral M1-like phenotype, reduces monocyte chemoattractant protein secretion, and blocks monocyte migration. This antibody also inhibits monocyte recruitment in patient-specific vascularized tumor models. In summary, this vascularized tumor model recapitulates the monocyte recruitment cascade, enabling functional testing of innovative therapeutic antibodies targeting TAMs in the tumor microenvironment.