Nat commun: B cells are associated with immunotherapy of melanoma

September 25, 2019 / BIOON / -- researchers from the European Institute of bioinformatics of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the Vienna Medical University found that B cells may play an important role in the immunotherapy of melanoma At present, immunotherapy mainly focuses on T cells, but the results show that B cells can also provide an interesting research approach Immunotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that uses the body's own immune system to recognize and fight diseases It comes in many forms, including cancer vaccines, targeted antibodies or tumor - infected viruses Currently, only some cancer patients benefit from this treatment Photo source: Christine Wagner's melanoma is a particularly aggressive skin cancer Immunotherapy currently focuses on T cells T cells play an important role in controlling and shaping the immune system They can kill cancer cells directly and absorb other cells in the process A recent study published in nature communications showed that B cells, like T cells, play a key role in triggering melanoma related inflammation B cell is a kind of white blood cell, which can produce antibodies and several important messenger molecules In cases of melanoma, the researchers found that B cells act almost like a satellite navigation system, signaling T cells to tumors by secreting this unique messenger molecule "Immunotherapy has changed cancer treatment," explains Johannes Griss, a researcher at Vienna Medical University and embl-ebi "It releases T cells so they can fight cancer in a more effective way For the first time, we found that B cells also play an important role in this process, helping T cells find tumors The role of B cells in immunotherapy is not clear, but their role may be greater than previously thought "In the course of the study, the researchers found that when B cells in patients with melanoma decreased, the number of T cells and other immune cells in the tumor also decreased significantly In subsequent experiments, the researchers found that a particular B-cell subtype appeared to be responsible for guiding T cells and other immune cells into the tumor Interestingly, melanoma cells seem to force B cells to develop this unique B cell subtype The most exciting thing is that this specific B-cell subtype also increases the activation of T cells by current immunotherapy, and the more this B-cell subtype is before tumor treatment, indicating the better response of patients to follow-up immunotherapy "Further research is needed to answer questions such as how melanoma cells change B cells, what mechanisms B cells use to support T cell activation, and how we can help these B cells support immunotherapy in current cancer patients "Griss concluded Reference: Johannes Griss et al B cells sustain information and predict response to immune checkpoint blockade in human America, nature communications (2019) Doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12160-2