# Dendritic Cell Regulation by Sphingosine-1-phosphate in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

> **NIH VA I01** · VA SAN DIEGO HEALTHCARE SYSTEM · 2021 · —

## Abstract

The inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) affect over 50 thousand US veterans. Thirty percent do not respond
initially and an additional 50% eventually lose response to even our most effective therapies (anti-TNF agents).
Thus, there is an unmet need for novel therapeutics. Indeed, an oral drug that interacts specifically with S1P
receptor-1 (S1P1) (i.e. RPC1063/ozanimod) has shown significant promise in IBD trials, while another is
already FDA-approved for multiple sclerosis (i.e. FTY720). However, a critical need remains to understand the
understudied mechanism/s through which these drugs modulate chronic inflammatory diseases.
Our long-term goal is to understand how to manipulate the S1P pathway for therapeutic purposes in IBD.
Our immediate objective is to understand dendritic cell-based mechanisms of action of novel S1P1-selective
agonists with proven efficacy in preclinical and clinical studies.
Based on the expression of S1P1 on pro-regulatory dendritic cells (DC), we hypothesize that S1P1-selective
agonists modulate DC function, and/or their migration, where they modulate T cell differentiation. This
hypothesis stems from our preliminary data that demonstrates that chronic inflammation alters S1P synthesis
and degradation (promoting DC retention) in IBD mouse models and human IBD and that S1P1-selective
agonism degrades S1P1, promoting mobilization of DC to mesenteric lymph node and ameliorating
inflammation in clinically-relevant IBD mouse models.
Our innovative approach takes advantage of 1. chronic mouse models of IBD that recapitulate many of the
characteristics of the human disease, 2. new drugs with distinct downstream actions and 3. cutting edge
microscopy and mass cytometry techniques that allow us to directly visualize the effects of these drugs on a
living animal and directly on the human intestine. Our inter-institutional studies bring together our extensive
expertise in lymphocyte traffic/IBD models at SDVAMC with that of The Scripps Research Institute: S1P
pharmacology, novel imaging techniques at the La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology and access to
clinical trial samples (Receptos).
Our rationale is that understanding the mechanism of action of these novel anti-inflammatories will lead to
optimized drug design and minimize the risks related to the pleiotropic effects of non-selective S1P receptor
agonists (e.g. FTY720) on cellular processes. The proposed research is significant as this pathway is
evolutionarily conserved in mice and humans. Therefore, our results might directly translate to human IBD,
enabling us to elucidate the mechanism of action of S1P1-selective agents. Furthermore, we may uncover new
targets for therapeutic intervention to be modulated pharmacologically with oral drugs, at reduced cost of
production and administration, compared with current antibody-based biologic strategies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10045948
- **Project number:** 5I01BX003436-03
- **Recipient organization:** VA SAN DIEGO HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
- **Principal Investigator:** Jesus Rivera-Nieves
- **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-10-01 → 2022-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10045948

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10045948, Dendritic Cell Regulation by Sphingosine-1-phosphate in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (5I01BX003436-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10045948. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*