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Olivieri G, Cotugno N, Palma P. Emerging insights into atypical B cells in pediatric chronic infectious diseases and immune system disorders: T(o)-bet on control of B-cell immune activation. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2024; 153:12-27. [PMID: 37890706 PMCID: PMC10842362 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2023.10.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2023] [Revised: 10/13/2023] [Accepted: 10/13/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023]
Abstract
Repetitive or persistent cellular stimulation in vivo has been associated with the development of a heterogeneous B-cell population that exhibits a distinctive phenotype and, in addition to classical B-cell markers, often expresses the transcription factor T-bet and myeloid marker CD11c. Research suggests that this atypical population consists of B cells with distinct B-cell receptor specificities capable of binding the antigens responsible for their development. The expansion of this population occurs in the presence of chronic inflammatory conditions and autoimmune diseases where different nomenclatures have been used to describe them. However, as a result of the diverse contexts in which they have been investigated, these cells have remained largely enigmatic, with much ambiguity remaining regarding their phenotype and function in humoral immune response as well as their role in autoimmunity. Atypical B cells have garnered considerable interest because of their ability to produce specific antibodies and/or autoantibodies and because of their association with key disease manifestations. Although they have been widely described in the context of adults, little information is present for children. Therefore, the aim of this narrative review is to describe the characteristics of this population, suggest their function in pediatric immune-related diseases and chronic infections, and explore their potential therapeutic avenues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulio Olivieri
- Research Unit of Clinical Immunology and Vaccinology, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy; PhD Program in Immunology, Molecular Medicine and Applied Biotechnology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Nicola Cotugno
- Research Unit of Clinical Immunology and Vaccinology, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy; Department of Systems Medicine, Molecular Medicine, and Applied Biotechnology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Paolo Palma
- Research Unit of Clinical Immunology and Vaccinology, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy; Department of Systems Medicine, Molecular Medicine, and Applied Biotechnology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
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Delgado AH, Fluxa R, Perez-Andres M, Diks AM, van Gaans-van den Brink JAM, Barkoff AM, Blanco E, Torres-Valle A, Berkowska MA, Grigore G, van Dongen J.J.M, Orfao A. Automated EuroFlow approach for standardized in-depth dissection of human circulating B-cells and plasma cells. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1268686. [PMID: 37915569 PMCID: PMC10616957 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1268686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 09/29/2023] [Indexed: 11/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Multiparameter flow cytometry (FC) immunophenotyping is a key tool for detailed identification and characterization of human blood leucocytes, including B-lymphocytes and plasma cells (PC). However, currently used conventional data analysis strategies require extensive expertise, are time consuming, and show limited reproducibility. Objective Here, we designed, constructed and validated an automated database-guided gating and identification (AGI) approach for fast and standardized in-depth dissection of B-lymphocyte and PC populations in human blood. Methods For this purpose, 213 FC standard (FCS) datafiles corresponding to umbilical cord and peripheral blood samples from healthy and patient volunteers, stained with the 14-color 18-antibody EuroFlow BIgH-IMM panel, were used. Results The BIgH-IMM antibody panel allowed identification of 117 different B-lymphocyte and PC subsets. Samples from 36 healthy donors were stained and 14 of the datafiles that fulfilled strict inclusion criteria were analysed by an expert flow cytometrist to build the EuroFlow BIgH-IMM database. Data contained in the datafiles was then merged into a reference database that was uploaded in the Infinicyt software (Cytognos, Salamanca, Spain). Subsequently, we compared the results of manual gating (MG) with the performance of two classification algorithms -hierarchical algorithm vs two-step algorithm- for AGI of the cell populations present in 5 randomly selected FCS datafiles. The hierarchical AGI algorithm showed higher correlation values vs conventional MG (r2 of 0.94 vs. 0.88 for the two-step AGI algorithm) and was further validated in a set of 177 FCS datafiles against conventional expert-based MG. For virtually all identifiable cell populations a highly significant correlation was observed between the two approaches (r2>0.81 for 79% of all B-cell populations identified), with a significantly lower median time of analysis per sample (6 vs. 40 min, p=0.001) for the AGI tool vs. MG, respectively and both intra-sample (median CV of 1.7% vs. 10.4% by MG, p<0.001) and inter-expert (median CV of 3.9% vs. 17.3% by MG by 2 experts, p<0.001) variability. Conclusion Our results show that compared to conventional FC data analysis strategies, the here proposed AGI tool is a faster, more robust, reproducible, and standardized approach for in-depth analysis of B-lymphocyte and PC subsets circulating in human blood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro H. Delgado
- Cytognos SL, Salamanca, Spain
- Translational and Clinical Research Program, Centro de Investigación del Cáncer (CIC) and Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular del Cancer (IBMCC), CSIC-University of Salamanca (USAL), Salamanca, Spain
| | | | - Martin Perez-Andres
- Translational and Clinical Research Program, Centro de Investigación del Cáncer (CIC) and Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular del Cancer (IBMCC), CSIC-University of Salamanca (USAL), Salamanca, Spain
- Department of Medicine, University of Salamanca (USAL) and Institute of Biomedical Research of Salamanca (IBSAL), Salamanca, Spain
- Biomedical Research Networking Centre Consortium of Oncology (CIBERONC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Annieck M. Diks
- Department of Immunology (IMMU), Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Leiden, Netherlands
| | | | | | - Elena Blanco
- Translational and Clinical Research Program, Centro de Investigación del Cáncer (CIC) and Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular del Cancer (IBMCC), CSIC-University of Salamanca (USAL), Salamanca, Spain
- Department of Medicine, University of Salamanca (USAL) and Institute of Biomedical Research of Salamanca (IBSAL), Salamanca, Spain
| | - Alba Torres-Valle
- Translational and Clinical Research Program, Centro de Investigación del Cáncer (CIC) and Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular del Cancer (IBMCC), CSIC-University of Salamanca (USAL), Salamanca, Spain
- Department of Medicine, University of Salamanca (USAL) and Institute of Biomedical Research of Salamanca (IBSAL), Salamanca, Spain
| | - Magdalena A. Berkowska
- Department of Immunology (IMMU), Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Leiden, Netherlands
| | | | - J .J .M. van Dongen
- Translational and Clinical Research Program, Centro de Investigación del Cáncer (CIC) and Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular del Cancer (IBMCC), CSIC-University of Salamanca (USAL), Salamanca, Spain
- Department of Immunology (IMMU), Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Alberto Orfao
- Translational and Clinical Research Program, Centro de Investigación del Cáncer (CIC) and Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular del Cancer (IBMCC), CSIC-University of Salamanca (USAL), Salamanca, Spain
- Department of Medicine, University of Salamanca (USAL) and Institute of Biomedical Research of Salamanca (IBSAL), Salamanca, Spain
- Biomedical Research Networking Centre Consortium of Oncology (CIBERONC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
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