Inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase increases regulatory T cells in humans

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