Abstract
Background
Recently, 'don't eat me'-signals like CD47 have emerged as novel innate immune checkpoints, enabling cancer cells to evade clearance by phagocytes such as monocyte-derived macrophages (MdM) or microglia (MG). Here, we aim at defining the role of inhibitory Siglec-9 in human and its mouse homologue Siglec-E in MG-centered immunotherapy against GBM.
Material and Methods
We employed a CT-2A orthotopic GBM mouse model with MG specific (
Sall1CreERT2 x
Sigleceflox) and whole innate-compartment (
Cx3cr1CreERT2 x
Sigleceflox) spatio-temporal deletion of
Siglece. We applied multi-color flow cytometry, transcriptomics and proteomics analysis to decipher the immune response upon
Siglece knockout.
Results
TCGA RNA-sequencing data revealed a significant correlation between high expression of immunoinhibitory
SIGLEC9 and poor survival in GBM patients (log-rank p = 0.02). Siglec-E blockade increased murine MG mediated GBM cell in vitro phagocytosis (normalized phagocytosis of 1.00 in isotype vs. 1.76 in anti-Siglec-E antibody, p < 0.001). In the MG specific spatio-temporal deletion of
Siglece (
Sall1CreERT2 x
Sigleceflox), we observed high MG-proliferation upon Siglec-E knockout (Ki-67
+ MG 1 4.8% in Cre
- vs. 34.9% in Cre
+, p < 0.0001) accompanied by an enhanced microglial GBM-cell uptake (5.6% in Cre
- vs. 12.3% in Cre
+, p < 0.001). By extending the
Siglece knockout to the MdM compartment in our glioma mouse model (
Cx3cr1CreERT2 x
Sigleceflox) we observed a significantly prolonged survival in the Cx3cr1
Cre+ population (21d in Cre
- vs. 27d post-tumor injection in Cre
+, p = 0.018), which could be further promoted by combining
Siglece knockout with CD47 blockade (30d post-tumor injection in Cre
+ + anti-CD47). Unbiased proteomics analysis revealed increased antigen processing and presentation capabilities of
Siglece knockout MdMs which was confirmed by ex-vivo OT-1 cross-presentation assays. This bridging of innate and adaptive responses with increased T cell priming upon MdM
Siglece knockout was further promoted by addition of anti-PD1 antibody to the combined
Siglece knockout and anti-CD47 treatment arm. Animals harboring CT-2A tumors, exhibited a sustained survival benefit under the triple therapy, with 23% of animals experiencing long-term remission, even after tumor re-challenge into the contra-lateral hemisphere. By genetically targeting sialic acids, the ligand for Siglec receptors, on CT-2A cells (GNE-KO), we observed a strong innate and adaptive immune response with increased GBM-cell phagocytosis by MG and MdMs and less exhausted tumor-infiltrating CD8
+ T-cells (14.8% in WT vs. 5.9% in GNE-KO, p = 0.003).
Conclusion
These data identify the sialic-acid-Sigl ec-E pathway as an anti-phagocytic signal in a pre-clinical GBM model, and demonstrate its therapeutic potential in GBM immunotherapy.
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