TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wiese, Teresa
A1  - Dennstädt, Fabio
A1  - Hollmann, Claudia
A1  - Stonawski, Saskia
A1  - Wurst, Catherina
A1  - Fink, Julian
A1  - Gorte, Erika
A1  - Mandasari, Putri
A1  - Domschke, Katharina
A1  - Hommers, Leif
A1  - Vanhove, Bernard
A1  - Schumacher, Fabian
A1  - Kleuser, Burkard
A1  - Seibel, Jürgen
A1  - Rohr, Jan
A1  - Buttmann, Mathias
A1  - Menke, Andreas
A1  - Schneider-Schaulies, Jürgen
A1  - Beyersdorf, Niklas
T1  - Inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase increases regulatory T cells in humans
JF  - Brain Communications
N2  - Genetic deficiency for acid sphingomyelinase or its pharmacological inhibition has been shown to increase Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T-cell frequencies among CD4\(^+\) T cells in mice. We now investigated whether pharmacological targeting of the acid sphingomyelinase, which catalyzes the cleavage of sphingomyelin to ceramide and phosphorylcholine, also allows to manipulate relative CD4\(^+\) Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T-cell frequencies in humans. Pharmacological acid sphingomyelinase inhibition with antidepressants like sertraline, but not those without an inhibitory effect on acid sphingomyelinase activity like citalopram, increased the frequency of Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T cell among human CD4\(^+\) T cells in vitro. In an observational prospective clinical study with patients suffering from major depression, we observed that acid sphingomyelinase-inhibiting antidepressants induced a stronger relative increase in the frequency of CD4\(^+\) Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T cells in peripheral blood than acid sphingomyelinase-non- or weakly inhibiting antidepressants. This was particularly true for CD45RA\(^-\) CD25\(^{high}\) effector CD4\(^+\) Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T cells. Mechanistically, our data indicate that the positive effect of acid sphingomyelinase inhibition on CD4\(^+\) Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T cells required CD28 co-stimulation, suggesting that enhanced CD28 co-stimulation was the driver of the observed increase in the frequency of Foxp3+ regulatory T cells among human CD4\(^+\) T cells. In summary, the widely induced pharmacological inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase activity in patients leads to an increase in Foxp3+ regulatory T-cell frequencies among CD4\(^+\) T cells in humans both in vivo and in vitro.
KW  - acid sphingomyelinase
KW  - antidepressants
KW  - major depression
KW  - regulatory T cells
KW  - sphingolipids
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-259868
VL  - 3
IS  - 2
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Morbach, Caroline
A1  - Beyersdorf, Niklas
A1  - Kerkau, Thomas
A1  - Ramos, Gustavo
A1  - Sahiti, Floran
A1  - Albert, Judith
A1  - Jahns, Roland
A1  - Ertl, Georg
A1  - Angermann, Christiane E.
A1  - Frantz, Stefan
A1  - Hofmann, Ulrich
A1  - Störk, Stefan
T1  - Adaptive anti-myocardial immune response following hospitalization for acute heart failure
JF  - ESC Heart Failure
N2  - Aims

It has been hypothesized that cardiac decompensation accompanying acute heart failure (AHF) episodes generates a pro-inflammatory environment boosting an adaptive immune response against myocardial antigens, thus contributing to progression of heart failure (HF) and poor prognosis. We assessed the prevalence of anti-myocardial autoantibodies (AMyA) as biomarkers reflecting adaptive immune responses in patients admitted to the hospital for AHF, followed the change in AMyA titres for 6 months after discharge, and evaluated their prognostic utility.

Methods and results

AMyA were determined in n = 47 patients, median age 71 (quartiles 60; 80) years, 23 (49%) female, and 24 (51%) with HF with preserved ejection fraction, from blood collected at baseline (time point of hospitalization) and at 6 month follow-up (visit F6). Patients were followed for 18 months (visit F18). The prevalence of AMyA increased from baseline (n = 21, 45%) to F6 (n = 36, 77%; P < 0.001). At F6, the prevalence of AMyA was higher in patients with HF with preserved ejection fraction (n = 21, 88%) compared with patients with reduced ejection fraction (n = 14, 61%; P = 0.036). During the subsequent 12 months after F6, that is up to F18, patients with newly developed AMyA at F6 had a higher risk for the combined endpoint of death or rehospitalization for HF (hazard ratio 4.79, 95% confidence interval 1.13–20.21; P = 0.033) compared with patients with persistent or without AMyA at F6.

Conclusions

Our results support the hypothesis that AHF may induce patterns of adaptive immune responses. More studies in larger populations and well-defined patient subgroups are needed to further clarify the role of the adaptive immune system in HF progression.
KW  - adaptive immune response
KW  - acute heart failure
KW  - anti-myocardial
KW  - autoantibody
KW  - inflammation
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-258907
VL  - 8
IS  - 4
ER  -