An ultrasensitive and modular platform to detect Siglec ligands and control immune cell function

Siglecs are immunomodulatory receptors that regulate immune cell function. A fundamental challenge in studying Siglec-ligand interactions is the low affinity of Siglecs for their ligands. Inspired by how nature uses multivalency, we developed Siglec-liposomes as a highly multivalent and versatile platform for detecting Siglec glycan ligands in which recombinant Siglecs were conjugated to liposomes using the SpyCatcher-SpyTag system. Siglec-liposomes offer tunable multivalency and a modular assembly, enabling presentation of different Siglecs on the same liposome. Using Siglec-liposomes, we profiled Siglec ligands on human leukocytes, revealing distinct patterns of Siglec ligands. Moreover, Siglec-liposomes are in vivo compatible, where we demonstrated that Siglec-7-liposomes bind to the brain vasculature in a mucin domain-dependent manner. Given the abundance of Siglec ligands on T cells, we investigated whether Siglec-liposomes modulate T cell function and find that Siglec-7-liposomes increase T cell proliferation in an ST3Gal1-dependent and CD43-independent manner. Together, Siglec-liposomes are a versatile and sensitive tool for detecting Siglec ligands and immunomodulation.