TEK and breast cancer: Consequently, depleting Tie2+ macrophages can enhance vascular damage, and inhibiting Tie2 can prevent the recruitment of chemotherapy-induced Tie2+ TAMs, leading to reduced metastasis in breast cancer models.335,336 In another study, researchers developed ultrasmall copper nanoparticles (Cu@CuOx) targeted to CCR2 as nanocarriers loaded with gemcitabine.