CD24-Siglec-G Interaction Plays an Important in Reducing Experimental Graft-Versus-Host Disease (GVHD)

Abstract 453

The role of host antigen presenting cells (APCs) on negatively regulating GVHD is not well understood. Members of the sialic acid binding Ig–like lectin-G (Siglec-G) is an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motifs (ITIM) or ITIM-like regions in its intracellular domain that negatively regulates immune activation induced by non-infectious damage associated molecules (DAMPs). Following conditioning for allogeneic BMT, several DAMPs are released which stimulate host APCs and enhance GVHD. But the role of negative regulators of DAMP associated immune activation, such as Siglecs, in regulating allo-reactivity is not known. We therefore utilized well defined clinically relevant murine models of allogeneic BMT to test the hypothesis that deficiency of a negative regulator of responses to DAMPs in the hosts, namely Siglec-G, will increase GVHD. B6 wild type (WT) and Siglec-G^−/− animals were lethally irradiated (13Gy) and transplanted on day 0 with 5×10⁶ bone marrow and 3×10⁶ splenic CD90⁺T cells from either syngeneic WT-B6 or MHC mismatched BALB/c donors. The Siglec-G^−/− animals showed significantly worse survival than the allo-WT animals (p=0.0045). The increased mortality was associated with an increase in GVHD specific clinical severity (p<0.05), donor T cell expansion (p<0.03), and serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNFα, IFN-γ, p<0.05) on day +7 after BMT. We next evaluated whether this was because of Siglec-G deficiency only on the radiosensitive host APCs. To this end we generated [B6àB6Ly5.2] and [Siglec-G^−/−àB6Ly5.2] BM chimeras and utilized them as recipients following lethal radiation. They were injected with 5×10⁶ BM and 3×10⁶ CD90⁺ T cells from either syngeneic WT B6 or allogeneic BALB/c donors. The allogeneic [Siglec-G^−/−àB6Ly5.2] animals demonstrated significantly worse survival than the [B6àB6Ly5.2] animals (p<0.0001). We determined the converse, i.e. analyzed the role of Siglec-G on radio-resistant host APCs by generating [B6Ly5.2àB6] and [B6Ly5.2àSiglec-G^−/−] BM chimeras and utilized them as recipients. [B6Ly5.2àSiglec-G^−/−] chimeras demonstrated similar survival as [B6Ly5.2àB6] chimeras. These data collectively demonstrate that Siglec-G expression only on the host radiosensitive APCs is critical for protection from GVHD. To confirm the role of increased DAMPs in causing greater mortality we tested whether the intensity of conditioning affects the serum level of DAMPs (HMGB1, proinflammatory cytokines) and found that significantly greater levels of DAMPs were observed in the mice that received 13Gy than 8 Gy. Furthermore, consistent with the increased levels of DAMPs, Siglec-G^−/− animals showed higher GVHD only after 13Gy radiation but not after 8Gy conditioning. Because responses to non-infectious DAMPs are regulated by Siglec-G through its interaction with CD24 we next hypothesized that enhanced CD24-Siglec-G interaction would mitigate GVHD following myeloablative conditioning. We first characterized stimulation of allogeneic T cell responses by Siglec-G^−/− APCs. We utilized CD24^−/− and WT BALB/c T cells as responders in an MLR with B6 and Siglec-G^−/−stimulators. We found that Siglec-G^−/− APCs expanded the CD24^−/− T cells more than WT-B6 APCs. We next tested in vivo whether enhanced CD24-Siglec-G interaction would mitigate GVHD. We utilized a novel CD24 fusion protein (day-1, 100mg/mouse) and found that it decreased GVHD mortality only in the WT but not in the Siglec-G^−/− animals. Together our data demonstrate a critical role for CD24-Siglec-G interactions in regulating GVHD and suggest that administration of the novel CD24 fusion protein may be an innovative strategy to mitigate GVHD.