Tackling TAMs for Cancer Immunotherapy: It's Nano Time.
The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a highly complex environment that surrounds tumors. Interactions between cancer cells/non cancerous cells and cells/non cell components in the TME support tumor initiation, development, and metastasis. Of the cell types in the TME, tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) have gained attention owing to their crucial roles in supporting tumors and conferring therapy resistance. Recent developments in nanotechnology raise opportunities for the application of nano targeted drug delivery systems (Nano TDDS) in cancer therapy. We focus our discussion on current knowledge of TAMs, and describe recent examples of Nano TDDS based TAM modulation, highlighting strategies to overcome in vivo delivery barriers associated with the TME and their potential for clinical translation.
Trends in pharmacological sciences