Engineered tumor-infiltrating macrophages as gene delivery vehicles for interferon-α activates immunity and inhibits breast cancer progression

Abstract

An immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment is a cancer hallmark and a major impediment to successful immunotherapy. We engineered hematopoietic progenitors to target expression of an interferon-α (IFNα) transgene specifically to their monocytic progeny, including tumor-infiltrating macrophages. Mice chimeric for these IFNα-expressing macrophages showed activation of innate and adaptive immune cells against breast cancer and inhibited disease progression. © 2014 Landes Bioscience.