2023
November
Activating macrophages to remodel the tumor microenvironment
November 29, 2023
One of the reasons immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) may fail in solid tumors like pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is a lack of T cell infiltration and extensive myeloid inflammation in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Wattenberg et al. aimed to overcome these characteristics in recent work published in Science Immunology. Given the known plasticity...
Metabolic characteristics of DC vaccines define therapy responses
November 22, 2023
Dendritic cell (DC)-based cancer vaccines have great potential but are currently lacking in efficacy. Adamik et al. investigated the transcriptomic and immune-metabolic characteristics of DCs from patients with melanoma to better understand how cancer may impact antigen presentation function and metabolic activity of these cells. Their results were recently published in Nature Communications...
SITC - 38th Annual Meeting 2023
November 15, 2023
This week’s extensive special feature covers select talks from the SITC - 38th Annual Meeting 2023 in San Diego, CA. We have organized the content by topics below. Keynote AddressSusan Kaech Microbiome and metabolismSusan BullmanYoungseok ChoLydia Lynch Cell-based immunotherapiesFelix KorellElise WilcoxLeyuan MaKole Roybal Tumor microenvironmentRolf BrekkenBridget P. KeenanJames L. ReadingHumsa Venkatesh Cancer vaccinationAlex...
Flt3L has the opposite of a goldilocks effect thanks to two distinct DC-mediated mechanisms
November 8, 2023
Flt3L (FL) is essential for the differentiation and proliferation of classical DCs (cDCs), which play a role in recruiting various immune cell types and activating both effector and regulatory responses in cancer. Investigating the role of FL in antitumor immunity, Régnier et al. uncovered an unusual pattern, in which both high and low...
Manipulated macrophages reshape the metastatic tumor microenvironment
November 1, 2023
Liver metastases respond poorly to current immunotherapies, which may be due to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), and in particular, the presence of pro-tumoral tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). To overcome this issue, Kerzel, Giacca, et al. hypothesized that enforced IFNα expression in liver metastases by genetic engineering of liver macrophages, including Kupffer cells (KCs)...
