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Singh S, Roszik J, Saini N, Singh VK, Bavisi K, Wang Z, Vien LT, Yang Z, Kundu S, Davis RE, Bover L, Diab A, Neelapu SS, Overwijk WW, Rai K, Singh M. B Cells Are Required to Generate Optimal Anti-Melanoma Immunity in Response to Checkpoint Blockade. Front Immunol 2022; 13:794684. [PMID: 35720386 PMCID: PMC9204262 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.794684] [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] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2021] [Accepted: 04/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Immunotherapies such as checkpoint blockade therapies are known to enhance anti-melanoma CD8+ T cell immunity, but only a fraction of patients treated with these therapies achieve durable immune response and disease control. It may be that CD8+ T cells need help from other immune cells to generate effective and long-lasting anti-tumor immunity or that CD8+ T cells alone are insufficient for complete tumor regression and cure. Melanoma contains significant numbers of B cells; however, the role of B cells in anti-melanoma immunity is controversial. In this study, B16 melanoma mouse models were used to determine the role of B cells in anti-melanoma immunity. C57BL/6 mice, B cell knockout (KO) C57BL/6 mice, anti-CD19, and anti-CXCL13 antibody-treated C57BL/6 mice were used to determine treatment efficacy and generation of tumor-specific CD8+ T cells in response to PD-L1 blockade alone or combination with TLR-7/8 activation. Whole transcriptome analysis was performed on the tumors from B cell depleted and WT mice, untreated or treated with anti-PD-L1. Both CD40-positive and CD40-negative B cells were isolated from tumors of TLR-7/8 agonist-treated wild-type mice and adoptively transferred into tumor-bearing B cell KO mice, which were treated with anti-PD-L1 and TLR-7/8 agonist. Therapeutic efficacy was determined in the presence of activated or inactivated B cells. Microarray analysis was performed on TLR-7/8-treated tumors to look for the B cell signatures. We found B cells were required to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of monotherapy with anti-PD-L1 antibody and combination therapy with anti-PD-L1 antibody plus TLR-7/8 agonist. However, B cells were not essential for anti-CTLA-4 antibody activity. Interestingly, CD40-positive but not CD40-negative B cells contributed to anti-melanoma immunity. In addition, melanoma patients' TCGA data showed that the presence of B cell chemokine CXCL13 and B cells together with CD8+ T cells in tumors were strongly associated with improved overall survival. Our transcriptome data suggest that the absence of B cells enhances immune checkpoints expression in the tumors microenvironment. These results revealed the importance of B cells in the generation of effective anti-melanoma immunity in response to PD-1-PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy. Our findings may facilitate the design of more effective anti-melanoma immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shubhra Singh
- Department of Genomic Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Jason Roszik
- Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Neeraj Saini
- Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Vipul Kumar Singh
- Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Karishma Bavisi
- Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Zhiqiang Wang
- Department of Immunology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Long T Vien
- Department of Immunology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Zixi Yang
- Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas, Health Science Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Suprateek Kundu
- Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Richard E Davis
- Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Laura Bover
- Department of Genomic Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States.,Department of Immunology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Adi Diab
- Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Sattva S Neelapu
- Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | | | - Kunal Rai
- Department of Genomic Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Manisha Singh
- Department of Genomic Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
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