Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

immuneACCESS, 2021

DOI: 10.21417/atr2021nc

Nature Research, Nature Communications, 1(12), 2021

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23355-x

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B cell signatures and tertiary lymphoid structures contribute to outcome in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

AbstractCurrent immunotherapy paradigms aim to reinvigorate CD8+ T cells, but the contribution of humoral immunity to antitumor immunity remains understudied. Here, we demonstrate that in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) caused by human papillomavirus infection (HPV+), patients have transcriptional signatures of germinal center (GC) tumor infiltrating B cells (TIL-Bs) and spatial organization of immune cells consistent with tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) with GCs, both of which correlate with favorable outcome. GC TIL-Bs in HPV+ HNSCC are characterized by distinct waves of gene expression consistent with dark zone, light zone and a transitional state of GC B cells. Semaphorin 4a expression is enhanced on GC TIL-Bs present in TLS of HPV+ HNSCC and during the differentiation of TIL-Bs. Our study suggests that therapeutics to enhance TIL-B responses in HNSCC should be prioritized in future studies to determine if they can complement current T cell mediated immunotherapies.