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Project

MATATUM: Validation and druggability development of macrophage-specific targets in the tumor microenvironment. (MATATUM)

Immune-based therapies, boosting the patient’s own immune system in the fight against cancer, have recently shown promising results in a range of cancer types. Yet, addressing the development of therapy resistance, resulting in cancer relapse, remains an important unmet medical need. Recent evidence suggests that tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), representing a heterogeneous population of immune cells in tumors encompassing subsets with distinct molecular profiles and functions, considerably promote tumor progression and also contribute to therapy resistance. In this context, reprogramming of the TAM phenotype has the potential of synergistically improving the efficacy of immunotherapy by counteracting therapy resistance, promoting antigen presentation, inducing vessel normalisation and increasing the cytotoxic activity of TAMs.

Partners in the multi-disciplinary MATATUM consortium have recently obtained preclinical evidence at the genetic level and/or through in vivo imaging, validating the essential implication of a number of selected pathways for TAM-supported tumor growth and metastasis and/or their usefulness as biomarkers for TAM targeting. The current SBO proposal with economic finality aims to develop small molecule and biological early stage drug candidates to validate these biomarkers on TAMs as targets for add-on therapy counteracting resistance to cancer immunotherapies. 

Date:1 Jan 2018 →  31 Dec 2021
Keywords:Immune-based therapies, tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), reprogramming of the TAM phenotype, biomarkers for TAM targeting, early stage drug candidates
Disciplines:Laboratory medicine, Palliative care and end-of-life care, Regenerative medicine, Other basic sciences, Other health sciences, Nursing, Other paramedical sciences, Other translational sciences, Other medical and health sciences, Immunology