Background: After significant advancements in tumor treatment, personalized cell therapy based on chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) holds promise for transforming the management of various diseases. CAR-T therapy, the first approved CAR cell therapy product, has demonstrated therapeutic potential in treating infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, and fibrosis. CAR-macrophages (CAR-Ms) are emerging as a promising approach in CAR immune cell therapy, particularly for solid tumor treatment, highlighting the feasibility of using macrophages to eliminate pathogens and abnormal cells.
Aim of review: This review summarizes the progress of CAR-M therapy in non-tumor diseases and discusses various CAR intracellular activation domain designs and their potential to optimize therapeutic effects by modulating interactions between cellular components in the tissue microenvironment and CAR-M. Additionally, we discuss the characteristics and advantages of CAR-M therapy compared to traditional medicine and CAR-T/NK therapy, as well as the challenges and prospects for the clinical translation of CAR-M.
Key scientific concepts of review: This review provides a comprehensive understanding of CAR-M for the treatment of non-tumor diseases, analyzes the advantages and characteristics of CAR-M therapy, and highlights the important impact of CAR intracellular domain design on therapeutic efficacy. In addition, the challenges and clinical translation prospects of developing CAR-M as a new cell therapy are discussed.
Keywords: CAR structure; CAR-Macrophage; Chimeric antigen receptors (CAR); Immunotherapy; Non-tumor disease.
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