Landscape of B cell immunity and related immune evasion in human cancers

Nat Genet. 2019 Mar;51(3):560-567. doi: 10.1038/s41588-018-0339-x. Epub 2019 Feb 11.

Abstract

Tumor-infiltrating B cells are an important component in the microenvironment but have unclear anti-tumor effects. We enhanced our previous computational algorithm TRUST to extract the B cell immunoglobulin hypervariable regions from bulk tumor RNA-sequencing data. TRUST assembled more than 30 million complementarity-determining region 3 sequences of the B cell heavy chain (IgH) from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Widespread B cell clonal expansions and immunoglobulin subclass switch events were observed in diverse human cancers. Prevalent somatic copy number alterations in the MICA and MICB genes related to antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity were identified in tumors with elevated B cell activity. The IgG3-1 subclass switch interacts with B cell-receptor affinity maturation and defects in the antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity pathway. Comprehensive pancancer analyses of tumor-infiltrating B cell-receptor repertoires identified novel tumor immune evasion mechanisms through genetic alterations. The IgH sequences identified here are potentially useful resources for future development of immunotherapies.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • B-Lymphocytes / immunology*
  • Base Sequence
  • Complementarity Determining Regions / immunology
  • Humans
  • Immune Evasion / immunology*
  • Immunoglobulin G / immunology
  • Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains / immunology
  • Immunoglobulin Variable Region / immunology
  • Neoplasms / immunology*
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA / methods
  • Somatic Hypermutation, Immunoglobulin / immunology

Substances

  • Complementarity Determining Regions
  • Immunoglobulin G
  • Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains
  • Immunoglobulin Variable Region