Activation of Interferon and Complement Pathways in Thrombotic Microangiopathy

Transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA) is a significant cause of mortality after hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). Complement blockade is an effective therapeutic strategy for TA-TMA, but some patients with severe disease lack a complete response, prompting a search for additional targetable endothelial injury pathways. We performed transcriptome analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells collected prior to HSCT and at onset of TA-TMA and observed significant up-regulation of classical and alternative complement pathways during active TA-TMA. At resolution of TA-TMA after eculizumab therapy, essentially all up-regulated genes and pathways returned to baseline expression levels, supporting the clinical practice of successfully discontinuing complement blockade after resolution of TA-TMA. Further analysis of the global transcriptional regulatory network showed a notable interferon signature associated with TA-TMA with increased STAT1 and STAT2 signaling. To confirm our observations, we documented a high incidence of clinically significant TMA in children with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), an interferon gamma-driven disease, outside the setting of transplantation. We also confirmed increased interferon signaling in a separate cohort of patients by measuring CXCL9 and CXCL10 in urine. Our data suggest a key relationship between increased interferon signaling, complement activation, and TMA in two distinct clinical settings, HLH and TA-TMA. Combined anti-complement and anti-interferon treatment may facilitate disease control in patients with refractory TA-TMA. These data cast light on the occurrence of TMA in persons receiving therapeutic interferons, and possibility of TMA in other interferon-driven diseases where interferon may be a novel therapeutic target. Overall design: We examined seven children of similar age receiving aHSCT for neuroblastoma after an identical preparative regimen of carboplatin, etoposide, and melphalan, a regimen associated with a high-risk of TA-TMA. Four of the seven children developed TA-TMA and three did not. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and blood samples were collected prospectively weekly for all children, mRNA was extracted and profiled with RNA-seq.