The ligation between ERMAP, galectin-9 and dectin-2 promotes Kupffer cell phagocytosis and antitumor immunity

Kupffer cells, the liver tissue resident macrophages, are critical in the detection and clearance of cancer cells. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying their detection and phagocytosis of cancer cells are still unclear. Using in vivo genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 knockout screening, we found that the cell-surface transmembrane protein ERMAP expressed on various cancer cells signaled to activate phagocytosis in Kupffer cells and to control of liver metastasis. ERMAP interacted with β-galactoside binding lectin galectin-9 expressed on the surface of Kupffer cells in a manner dependent on glycosylation. Galectin-9 formed a bridging complex with ERMAP and the transmembrane receptor dectin-2, expressed on Kupffer cells, to induce the detection and phagocytosis of cancer cells by Kupffer cells. Patients with low expression of ERMAP on tumors had more liver metastases. Thus, our study identified the ERMAP–galectin–9-dectin-2 axis as an ‘eat me’ signal for Kupffer cells. Yuan and colleagues show that ERMAP expression on cancer cells delivers an ‘eat me’ signal to Kupffer cells by binding to Gal-9–dectin-2 on Kupffer cells and triggering phagocytosis.