Abstract 3659: Engagement of myelomonocytic siglecs by tumor-associated ligands modulates innate immune responses to cancer
Authors: Läubli Heinz , Pearce Oliver M. T. , Schwarz Flavio , Deng Lingquan , Stanczak Michal , Deng Liwen , Verhagen Andrea , Secrest Patrick , Lusk Chrissy , Schwartz Ann G. , Varki Nissi , Bui Jack , Varki Ajit 
Published: May 2015

Sialic acids are dominant glycans on vertebrate cell surfaces, mediating roles as diverse as influenza infection, leukocyte trafficking and neural plasticity. It has long been known that malignant cells upregulate sialic acids, but few reasons for this have so far been elucidated. In apparently unrelated work, we have recently found that certain pathogenic bacteria coat themselves with sialic acids, thereby dampening innate immune responses, via engagement of inhibitory Siglecs (sialic acid binding Ig-like lectins). We therefore hypothesized that hypersialylated carcinoma cells might similarly engage Siglecs and modulate immune cell function. Confirming this hypothesis, we now have the first demonstration of the involvement of Siglecs in cancer progression in vivo.

Siglec-9 is the most abundant inhibitory Siglec on human neutrophils and monocytes/macrophages. We first demonstrate that ligands for Siglec-9 are strongly upregulated in human carcinomas. We further provide evidence that ligands on carcinoma cells can inhibit neutrophil activation and killing of tumor cells by neutrophils. We then show that mice lacking Siglec-E (the murine functional equivalent of Siglec-9) have an increased immunosurveillance in autochthonous and transplantation models, which could be reversed by transgenic expression of Siglec-9 in myelomonocytic cells. Studies of later phases of tumor progression however showed that Siglec-E/-9 inhibits polarization of M2 macrophages and therefore impairs angiogenesis and tumor growth. In keeping with this dualistic role of myelomonocytic Siglecs during different phases of cancer progression, survival of non-small cell lung cancer patients with a polymorphism that reduced ligand binding to Siglec-9 had initially an improved survival, suggesting an increased immunosurveillance, but this effect was lost during longer followup.

Our results identify inhibitory CD33-related myelomonocytic Siglecs as important players in cancer biology and as potential targets for immunomodulatory therapy. We show that hypersialylated carcinoma cells modulate the innate immune response by engaging Siglec-9 and inhibit either immunosurveillance or cancer-related inflammation. Our data also exemplify the dualistic role of innate immune cells and their receptors in cancer progression depending on the context and the microenvironment, i.e., growth control by immunosurveillance or growth support by cancer-related inflammation.

Citation Format: Heinz Läubli, Oliver M. T. Pearce, Flavio Schwarz, Lingquan Deng, Michal Stanczak, Liwen Deng, Andrea Verhagen, Patrick Secrest, Chrissy Lusk, Ann G. Schwartz, Nissi Varki, Jack Bui, Ajit Varki. Engagement of myelomonocytic siglecs by tumor-associated ligands modulates innate immune responses to cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 3659. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-3659