Advances in Targeting Macrophages in Immunotherapy
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Immunology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2025 | Viewed by 2541
Special Issue Editor
Interests: macrophages; infection; inflammation; immunity; inflammasomes; inflammatory cell death; cancer immunotherapy; radiation; extracellular vesicles; liposomes; polymer nanocapsules; skin biology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Macrophages are vital effector cells of the innate immune system and are also major components of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Mounting evidence has demonstrated that the TME alters the nature of macrophages so that they can maintain vibrant tissue homeostasis, dictating tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) to orchestrate tumorigenesis via augmenting conditions, favoring tumor establishment, development, and metastasis. TAMs also express a variety of immune checkpoints, leading towards suppressing antitumor immune responses. This makes tumors with a high TAM burden have poor prognoses and increased resistance to chemotherapeutic agents and other treatment modalities. Therefore, exploring tumor-promoting mechanisms of TAMs has attracted much attention, and targeting TAMs has emerged as a promising immunotherapeutic strategy.
In recent years, unprecedented breakthroughs have been made in cancer immunotherapies and have achieved undeniable success, providing evidence that these macrophage-centered therapeutic approaches have the potential to complement and synergize with the currently available tools in the oncology armamentarium. This Special Issue invites research articles and reviews focused on advancing our knowledge and broadening our understanding of TAM-directed treatment modalities.
Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Macrophage engineering and genetic editing;
- Strategies engaged towards effective bidirectional interactions with components of innate and adaptive systems;
- Strategies to improve clinical response rates in patients;
- Strategies aiming at improving immune checkpoint therapies;
- Studies focused on chimeric antigen macrophage (CAR-M) for patients with solid tumors;
- Strategies focused on altering macrophage metabolism;
- Nanomaterial-based strategies for TAM-focused immunotherapy.
Dr. Vinod Nadella
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- tumor-associated macrophages
- tumor microenvironment
- tumor immunology
- carcinogenesis
- macrophage repolarization
- checkpoint inhibitor
- immunotherapy
- nanomaterials
- metabolic reprogramming
- epigenetics
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