Rapamycin-based graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis increases the immunosuppressivity of myeloid-derived suppressor cells without affecting T cells and anti-tumor cytotoxicity

The immunosuppressant rapamycin (RAPA) inhibits mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) functions and is applied after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) to attenuate the development of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), although the cellular targets of RAPA treatment are not well defined. Allogeneic T cells are the main drivers of GVHD, while immunoregulatory myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) were recently identified as potent disease inhibitors. In this study, we analyzed whether RAPA prevents the deleterious effects of allogeneic T cells or supports the immunosuppressive functions of MDSCs in a BMT model with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) classes I and II disparities. RAPA treatment efficiently attenuated clinical and histological GVHD and strongly decreased disease-induced mortality. Although splenocyte numbers increased during RAPA treatment, the ratio of effector T cells to MDSCs was unaltered. However, RAPA treatment induced massive changes in the genomic landscape of MDSCs preferentially up-regulating genes responsible for uptake or signal transduction of lipopeptides and lipoproteins. Most importantly, MDSCs from RAPA-treated mice exhibited increased immunosuppressive potential, which was primarily inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS)-dependent. Surprisingly, RAPA treatment had no impact on the genomic landscape of T cells, which was reflected by unchanged expression of activation and exhaustion markers and cytokine profiles in T cells from RAPA-treated and untreated mice. Similarly, T cell cytotoxicity and the graft-versus-tumor effect were maintained as co-transplanted tumor cells were efficiently eradicated, indicating that the immunosuppressant RAPA might be an attractive approach to strengthen the immunosuppressive function of MDSCs without affecting T cell immunity.