Abstract
Elevated glucose metabolism in immune cells represents a hallmark feature of many inflammatory diseases, such as sepsis. However, the role of individual glucose metabolic pathways during immune cell activation and inflammation remains incompletely understood. Here, we demonstrate a previously unrecognized anti-inflammatory function of the O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) signaling associated with the hexosamine biosynthesis pathway (HBP). Despite elevated activities of glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway, activation of macrophages with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) resulted in attenuated HBP activity and protein O-GlcNAcylation. Deletion of O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT), a key enzyme for protein O-GlcNAcylation, led to enhanced innate immune activation and exacerbated septic inflammation. Mechanistically, OGT-mediated O-GlcNAcylation of the serine-threonine kinase RIPK3 on threonine 467 (T467) prevented RIPK3-RIPK1 hetero- and RIPK3-RIPK3 homo-interaction and inhibited downstream innate immunity and necroptosis signaling. Thus, our study identifies an immuno-metabolic crosstalk essential for fine-tuning innate immune cell activation and highlights the importance of glucose metabolism in septic inflammation.