REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1645718
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Insights of Multi-Omics into the Microenvironment After Tumor Metastasis: A Paradigm Shift in Molecular Targeting Modeling and Immunotherapy for Advanced Cancer PatientsView all 11 articles
Targeting GABA Signaling in the Tumor Microenvironment: Implications for Immune Cell Regulation and Immunotherapy Resistance
Provisionally accepted
- 1West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- 2Chengdu Shangjin Nanfu Hospital, Chengdu, China
- 3West China Second University Hospital, Chengdu, China
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As an important inhibitory neurotransmitter, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) not only plays a key role in the central nervous system, but also has attracted wide attention in the tumor immune microenvironment in recent years. Studies have shown that tumor cells can synthesize GABA and use it to remodel the tumor microenvironment, thereby promoting the occurrence, development and metastasis of tumors. Although previous studies have revealed the important role of GABA in tumor immune escape, there are still many unknown areas of its mechanism, especially the heterogeneous manifestations in different tumor types and tissue environments. This review summarizes the immunomodulatory mechanisms of GABA in tumor-associated macrophages, CD8⁺ T cells and dendritic cells in the tumor immune microenvironment, and discusses its potential role in tumor immune escape and immunotherapy resistance, providing new ideas for the development of immunotherapeutic drugs targeting GABA receptors.
Keywords: GABA signaling, Tumor immunotherapy, Tumor Microenvironment, Immune cell reg ulation, Cancers
Received: 12 Jun 2025; Accepted: 22 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Xu, Yang and Bao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Li Bao, West China Second University Hospital, Chengdu, China
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