Human sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-like lectin 14 (Siglec-14) is a glycan-recognition protein that is expressed on myeloid cells, recognizes bacterial pathogens, and elicits pro-inflammatory responses. Although Siglec-14 is a transmembrane protein, a soluble form of Siglec-14 is also present in human blood. However, the mechanism that generates soluble Siglec-14 and what role this protein form may play remain unknown. Here, investigating the generation and function of soluble Siglec-14, we found that soluble Siglec-14 is derived from an alternatively spliced mRNA that retains intron 5, containing a termination codon and thus preventing the translation of exon 6, which encodes Siglec-14's transmembrane domain. We also note that the translated segment in intron 5 encodes a unique C-terminal 7-amino acid extension, which allowed the specific antibody-mediated detection of this isoform in human blood. Moreover, soluble Siglec-14 dose-dependently suppressed pro-inflammatory responses of myeloid cells that expressed membrane-bound Siglec-14, likely by interfering with the interaction between membrane-bound Siglec-14 and Toll-like receptor 2 on the cell surface. We also found that intron 5 contains a G-rich segment that assumes an RNA tertiary structure called a G-quadruplex, which may regulate the efficiency of intron 5 splicing. Taken together, we propose that soluble Siglec-14 suppresses pro-inflammatory responses triggered by membrane-bound Siglec-14.
Keywords: G-quadruplex; Siglec; alternative splicing; biomarker; inflammation; sialic acid; soluble receptor; toll-like receptor (TLR); transmembrane signaling.
© 2018 Huang et al.