A novel IgM–H-Ficolin complement pathway to attack allogenic cancer cells in vitro

The pentameric serum IgMs are critical to immune defense and surveillance through cytotoxicity against microbes and nascent cancer cells. Ficolins, a group of oligomeric lectins with an overall structure similar to C1q and mannose-binding lectin (MBL) participate in microbe infection and apoptotic cell clearance by activating the complement lectin pathway or a primitive opsonophagocytosis. It remains unknown whether serum IgMs interplay with ficolins in cancer immunosurveillance. Here we report a natural cancer killing of different types of cancer cells by sera from a healthy human population mediated by a novel IgM–H-ficolin complement activation pathway. We demonstrate for the first time that H-ficolin bound to a subset of IgMs in positive human sera and IgM–H-ficolin deposited on cancer cells to activate complement attack in cancer cells. Our data suggest that the IgM–H-ficolin -mediated complement activation pathway may be another defensive strategy for human cancer immunosurveillance.