Cancer Center, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
Front Immunol. 2022 Jul 28;13:881427. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.881427. eCollection 2022.
Controversial views regarding the roles of B cells in tumor immunity have existed for several decades. However, more recent studies have focused on its positive properties in antitumor immunity. Many studies have demonstrated a close association of the higher density of intratumoral B cells with favorable outcomes in cancer patients. B cells can interact with T cells as well as follicular dendritic cells within tertiary lymphoid structures, where they undergo a series of biological events, including clonal expansion, somatic hypermutation, class switching, and tumor-specific antibody production, which may trigger antitumor humoral responses. After activation, B cells can function as effector cells direct tumor-killing, antigen-presenting activity, and production of tumor-specific antibodies. At the other extreme, B cells can obtain inhibitory functions by relevant stimuli, converting to regulatory B cells, which serve as an immunosuppressive arm to tumor immunity. Here we summarize our current understanding of the bipolar properties of B cells within the tumor immune microenvironment and propose potential B cell-based immunotherapeutic strategies, which may help promote cancer immunotherapy.
几十年来，关于 B 细胞在肿瘤免疫中的作用一直存在争议。然而，最近的研究更多地集中在其在抗肿瘤免疫中的积极特性上。许多研究表明，肿瘤内 B 细胞密度较高与癌症患者的良好预后密切相关。B 细胞可以与 T 细胞以及三级淋巴结构中的滤泡树突状细胞相互作用，在那里它们经历一系列生物学事件，包括克隆扩增、体细胞高频突变、类别转换和肿瘤特异性抗体产生，这可能引发抗肿瘤体液反应。激活后，B 细胞可以作为效应细胞直接杀伤肿瘤、抗原呈递活性和产生肿瘤特异性抗体。另一方面，B 细胞可以通过相关刺激获得抑制功能，转化为调节性 B 细胞，作为肿瘤免疫的免疫抑制分支。在这里，我们总结了我们目前对肿瘤免疫微环境中 B 细胞的双极特性的理解，并提出了潜在的基于 B 细胞的免疫治疗策略，这可能有助于促进癌症免疫治疗。
