Myeloid Glycosylation Defects Lead to a Spontaneous Common Variable Immunodeficiency-like Condition with Associated Hemolytic Anemia and Antilymphocyte Autoimmunity

Abstract

Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), the most frequent symptomatic primary immune deficiency in humans, is a heterogeneous group of immunologic disorders estimated to affect 1:10,000–1:50,000. Although a clear disease etiology remains elusive, a common characteristic of CVID is deficient IgG Ab production in response to infection or vaccination. Patients often also exhibit autoimmune cytopenias with symptoms of abnormal T cell function, including reductions in naive T cells, which correlate with clinical severity. In this study, we discovered that targeted alterations in the glycome of the myeloid lineage lead to spontaneous immunodeficiency characteristic of both humoral and T cell dysfunction regularly found in human CVID. Mice carrying a myeloid-specific knockout of the Mgat2 gene encoding UDP-GlcNAc:α-6-d-mannoside β-1,2-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II enzyme exhibit deficiencies in IgG responses to both protein and polysaccharide conjugate vaccines. Interestingly, the immunodeficiency is associated with decreased T cell activity because of a persistent autoimmune-mediated depletion of naive T cells, which is induced by changes in erythrocyte surface glycosylation. The N-glycosylation dependent autoepitopes that emerge on erythrocytes lead to autoimmune hemolytic anemia, and the causative auto-IgM cross-reacts with naive T cells despite the lack of glycan change on T cells. These findings demonstrate that alterations in erythrocyte glycosylation trigger the development of autoantibodies directed at both erythrocytes and naive T cells, revealing a possible mechanistic link between the induction of autoimmune hemolytic anemia, the reduction in naive T cells, and poor Ab responses to vaccine in severe CVID patients.