The plasma exosomes from patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome contain epithelial cell–derived proteins involved in ferroptosis

ABSTRACT: Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) is an autoimmune disease represented by exocrine gland epithelial cell lesions. However, the mechanism underlying these lesions remains unclear. This study analyzed the plasma exosomes of pSS patients using proteomics and revealed the presence of 24 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) involved in the primary biological processes and signaling pathways related to ferroptosis. The DEPs enriched in the ferroptosis-related items were represented by downregulated ceruloplasmin (CP) and transferrin (TF). CC analysis of GO enrichment showed that CP and TF were localized at the apical plasma membrane, which is currently found only in epithelial cells. PPI analysis indicated that these exosomal DEPs formed a clustering network containing CP and TF. Among them, C5, C9, Haptoglobin (HP), and SERPING1 interacted directly with CP and TF. Notably, the expression of these proteins significantly decreased in both the pSS and secondary Sjögren’s syndrome (sSS) plasma exosomes but not in non-autoimmune sicca syndrome (nSS). In addition, their expression levels were significantly different in the exosomes and plasma. More importantly, the plasma and salivary exosomes of pSS patients contain higher levels of exocrine gland epithelial autoantigens SSA and SSB than those of healthy controls, and epithelial cells with positive labial glands biopsy (LGB) were more susceptible to ferroptosis than those with negative LGB. The results indicated that ferroptosis may be closely related to SS epithelial cell lesions. KEY MESSAGES: • pSS plasma exosomes contain epithelial cell–derived proteins involved in ferroptosis. • Complement C5 and C9 may be new molecules involved in ferroptosis and play a crucial role in pSS epithelial cell pathology. • The serum exosomes from pSS patients, not nSS patients, contain ferroptosis-related proteins. • The changes in the ferroptosis-related protein content in the exosomes can better reflect the state of the epithelial cell lesions than those in the plasma. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00109-023-02361-0.