Targeting CD37 promotes macrophage-dependent phagocytosis of multiple cancer cell types and facilitates tumor clearance in mice.

ABSTRACT: Macrophages play vital roles in innate and adaptive immunity, and their functions are mediated via phagocytosis and antigen presentation. Despite the effort to identify phagocytic checkpoints and explore their mechanism of action, current checkpoint-scanning strategies cannot provide a complete and systematic list of such immune checkpoints. Here, we perform in vitro phagocytosis assays using primary healthy donor macrophages co-cultured with breast cancer cells followed by ribosome profiling of sorted macrophages, to identify immune system-specific checkpoints. We observe a downregulation of CD37 in phagocytic macrophages and demonstrate that targeting CD37 with a specific antibody promotes the phagocytosis of multiple cancer cells in vitro. Mechanistically, tumorous macrophage migration

SUBMITTER: Gao X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12271527 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature