- Joshi, Sachindra;
- Liu, Jun;
- Bloom, Troy;
- Karaca Atabay, Elif;
- Kuo, Tzu-Hsing;
- Lee, Michael;
- Belcheva, Elitza;
- Spaits, Matthew;
- Grenha, Rosa;
- Maguire, Michelle;
- Frost, Jeffrey;
- Wang, Kathryn;
- Briscoe, Steven;
- Alexander, Mark;
- Herrin, Brantley;
- Castonguay, Roselyne;
- Pearsall, R;
- Andre, Patrick;
- Yu, Paul;
- Kumar, Ravindra;
- Li, Gang
Sotatercept is an activin receptor type IIA-Fc (ActRIIA-Fc) fusion protein that improves cardiopulmonary function in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) by selectively trapping activins and growth differentiation factors. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms of ActRIIA-Fc action are incompletely understood. Here, we determined through genome-wide expression profiling that inflammatory and immune responses are prominently upregulated in the lungs of a Sugen-hypoxia rat model of severe angio-obliterative PAH, concordant with profiles observed in PAH patients. Therapeutic treatment with ActRIIA-Fc-but not with a vasodilator-strikingly reversed proinflammatory and proliferative gene expression profiles and normalized macrophage infiltration in diseased rodent lungs. Furthermore, ActRIIA-Fc normalized pulmonary macrophage infiltration and corrected cardiopulmonary structure and function in Bmpr2 haploinsufficient mice subjected to hypoxia, a model of heritable PAH. Three high-affinity ligands of ActRIIA-Fc each induced macrophage activation in vitro, and their combined immunoneutralization in PAH rats produced cardiopulmonary benefits comparable to those elicited by ActRIIA-Fc. Our results in complementary experimental and genetic models of PAH reveal therapeutic anti-inflammatory activities of ActRIIA-Fc that, together with its known anti-proliferative effects on vascular cell types, could underlie clinical activity of sotatercept as either monotherapy or add-on to current PAH therapies.