Metabolic control of T cell immune response through glycans in inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract

Significance Our findings demonstrate that metabolic supplementation of mucosal T cells, isolated from patients with active ulcerative colitis (UC), with N -acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) leads to the enhancement of branched N-glycosylation on the T cell receptor, which was associated with the control of T cell activation and function. These results were validated in “glycoengineered” mouse models with severe colitis. Overall, our results open new avenues for a targeted-specific therapy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The therapeutic use of GlcNAc (either alone or in combination with other antiinflammatory therapies) represents a simple immunomodulatory strategy in IBD, with absence of side effects, low costs, and the possibility of being used as a simple rescue therapy to avoid unnecessary toxic effects and step-up therapies in IBD.