Wei J, Moon J, Yasumizu Y, Zhang L, Radassi K, Buitrago-Pocasangre N, Deerhake ME, Strauli N, Chan A, Herman A, Pedotte R, Raposo C, Tackenberg B, Yim I, Pappalardo J, Longbrake EE, Sumida TS, Axisa PP, Hafler DA. Systems Analysis of Immune Changes after B-cell Depletion in Autoimmune Multiple Sclerosis.
bioRxiv 2024:2024.02.07.576204. [PMID:
38370778 PMCID:
PMC10871268 DOI:
10.1101/2024.02.07.576204]
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Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex genetically mediated autoimmune disease of the central nervous system where anti-CD20-mediated B cell depletion is remarkably effective in the treatment of early disease. While previous studies investigated the effect of B cell depletion on select immune cell subsets using flow cytometry-based methods, the therapeutic impact on patient immune landscape is unknown. In this study, we explored how a therapy-driven " in vivo perturbation " modulates the diverse immune landscape by measuring transcriptomic granularity with single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq). We demonstrate that B cell depletion leads to cell type-specific changes in the abundance and function of CSF macrophages and peripheral blood monocytes. Specifically, a CSF-specific macrophage population with an anti-inflammatory transcriptomic signature and peripheral CD16 + monocytes increased in frequency post-B cell depletion. In addition, we observed increases in TNFα messenger RNA and protein in monocytes post-B cell depletion, consistent with the finding that anti-TNFα treatment exacerbates autoimmune activity in MS. In parallel, B cell depletion also induced changes in peripheral CD4 + T cell populations, including increases in the frequency of TIGIT + regulatory T cells and marked decreases in the frequency of myelin peptide loaded-tetramer binding CD4 + T cells. Collectively, this study provides an exhaustive transcriptomic map of immunological changes, revealing different mechanisms of action contributing to the high efficacy in B cell depletion treatment of MS.
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