CAFs orchestrates tumor immune microenvironment-A new target in cancer therapy?

Chunxue Zhang; Yuxiang Fei; Hui Wang; Sheng Hu; Chao Liu; Rong Hu; Qianming Du

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1113378

CAFs orchestrates tumor immune microenvironment-A new target in cancer therapy?

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Mar 14:14:1113378. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1113378. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Chunxue Zhang¹, Yuxiang Fei², Hui Wang¹, Sheng Hu³, Chao Liu², Rong Hu⁴, Qianming Du⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Basic Medicine and Clinical Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, China.
² Department of Pharmacy, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
³ College of Pharmacy, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Department of Physiology, China Pharmaceutical University, Jiangsu Nanjing, China.
⁵ General Clinical Research Center, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

Cancer immunotherapy has opened a new landscape in cancer treatment, however, the poor specificity and resistance of most targeted therapeutics have limited their therapeutic efficacy. In recent years, the role of CAFs in immune regulation has been increasingly noted as more evidence has been uncovered regarding the link between cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and the evolutionary process of tumor progression. CAFs interact with immune cells to shape the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) that favors malignant tumor progression, a crosstalk process that leads to the failure of cancer immunotherapies. In this review, we outline recent advances in the immunosuppressive function of CAFs, highlight the mechanisms of CAFs-immune cell interactions, and discuss current CAF-targeted therapeutic strategies for future study.

Keywords: CAF-targeted therapy; cancer; cancer-associated fibroblasts; immune cells; tumor microenvironment.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82172558, 82273971, 82204394), the Distinguished Young Scholars of Nanjing (JQX20008).