B cell deficiency promotes the initiation and progression of lung cancer

Authors：Wu, Han; Chen, Chen; Gu, Lixing; Li, Jiapeng; Yue, Yunqiang; Lyu, Mengqing; Cui, Yeting; Zhang, Xiaoyu; Liu, Yu; Zhu, Haichuan; Liao, Xinghua; Zhang, Tongcun^*; Sun, Fan^*; Hu, Weidong^*

Source：Frontiers in Oncology, 2022, 12: 1006477.

DOI：10.3389/fonc.2022.1006477

• B cell
• CAR-T
• lung cancer
• initiation
• progression

Currently commercialized CAR-T cell therapies targeting CD19 and BCMA show great efficacy to cure B cell malignancies. However, intravenous infusion of these CAR-T cells severely destroys both transformed and normal B cells in most tissues and organs, in particular lung, leading to a critical question that what the impact of normal B cell depletion on pulmonary diseases and lung cancer is. Herein, we find that B cell frequency is remarkably reduced in both smoking carcinogen-treated lung tissues and lung tumors, which is associated with advanced cancer progression and worse patient survival. B cell depletion by anti-CD20 antibody significantly accelerates the initiation and progression of lung tumors, which is mediated by repressed tumor infiltration of T cells and macrophage elimination of tumor cells. These findings unveil the overall antitumor activity of B cells in lung cancer, providing novel insights into both mechanisms underlying lung cancer pathogenesis and clinical prevention post CAR-T cell therapy.

• Institution
  武汉大学