The tumor microenvironment (TME) has become the focus of interest in cancer research and treatment. It includes the extracellular matrix (ECM) and ECM-modifying enzymes that are secreted by cancer and neighboring cells. The ECM serves both to anchor the tumor cells embedded in it and as a means of communication between the various cellular and non-cellular components of the TME. The cells of the TME modify their surrounding cancer-characteristic ECM. This in turn provides feedback to them via cellular receptors, thereby regulating, together with cytokines and exosomes, differentiation processes as well as tumor progression and spread. Matrix remodeling is accomplished by altering the repertoire of ECM components and by biophysical changes in stiffness and tension caused by ECM-crosslinking and ECM-degrading enzymes, in particular matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). These can degrade ECM barriers or, by partial proteolysis, release soluble ECM fragments called matrikines, which influence cells inside and outside the TME. This review examines the changes in the ECM of the TME and the interaction between cells and the ECM, with a particular focus on MMPs. PMID: 33379400 Funding information This work was supported by: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Grant ID: DFG: SFB1009 project A09
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are highly expressed within the tumor microenvironment of a wide range of cancers where they exert a pro-tumor phenotype by promoting tumor cell growth and suppressing anti-tumor immune function.Here, we showed that TAM accumulation in human and mouse tumors correlates with tumor cell expression of integrin αvβ3, a known driver of epithelial cancer progression and drug resistance.A monoclonal antibody targeting αvβ3 (LM609) exploited the co-enrichment of αvβ3 and TAMs to not only eradicate highly aggressive drug-resistant human lung and pancreas cancers in mice, but prevent the emergence of circulating tumor cells.Importantly, this anti-tumor activity in mice was eliminated following macrophage depletion.While LM609 had no direct effect on tumor cell viability, it engaged macrophages but not natural killer (NK) cells to induce antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) of αvβ3expressing tumor cells despite their expression of the CD47 "don't eat me signal".In contrast to strategies designed to eliminate TAMs, these findings suggest that anti-αvβ3 represents a promising immunotherapeutic approach to redirect TAMs to serve as tumor killers for late-stage or drug-resistant cancers.
Supplementary Figure 5 from Suppression of Integrin α3β1 in Breast Cancer Cells Reduces <i>Cyclooxygenase-2</i> Gene Expression and Inhibits Tumorigenesis, Invasion, and Cross-Talk to Endothelial Cells
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