Raquel Buj

🦉Macrophages read tumor sugars as metabolic instructions. Tumor-associated macrophages are often framed as an inflammatory polarization problem. This preprint points to a different control layer: how macrophages sense tumor glycans may help determine their metabolic state. CRISPR disruption of five different myeloid lectins did not push macrophages toward one uniform “anti-tumor” program. Instead, the recurring response was metabolic—mTORC1, cholesterol handling, fatty-acid metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation repeatedly shifted, while several perturbations also weakened hypoxia and angiogenesis programs. That makes the glycan–lectin axis interesting for a reason beyond immune recognition. Structurally different receptors may converge on shared immunometabolic machinery that helps TAMs adapt to tumors. The caveat is substantial: this is a bioRxiv preprint using a BT474 breast-cancer co-culture, and the study mainly measures transcriptional remodeling. It does not yet show that these changes improve T-cell activity, phagocytosis or tumor control. Those functional tests remain the critical next step. #immunotherapy #CAR_T #T_cell 👉biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…