Tumor-Associated Neutrophils Drive B-cell Recruitment and Their Differentiation to Plasma Cells

A major mechanism through which neutrophils have been suggested to modulate tumor progression involves the interaction and subsequent modulation of other infiltrating immune cells. B cells have been found to infiltrate various cancer types and play a role in tumor immunity, offering new immunotherapy opportunities. Nevertheless, the specific impact of tumor-associated neutrophils (TAN) on B cells has largely been overlooked. In the current study, we aimed to characterize the role of TANs in the recruitment and modulation of B cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME). We showed that TANs actively participate in the recruitment of B cells to the TME and identified TNF alpha as the major cytokine mediating B-cell chemotaxis by TANs. The recruitment of CD45(+)B220(+)CD138(+) splenic B cells by TANs in vitro resulted in B-cell phenotypic modulation, with 68.6% +/- 2.1% of the total migrated B cells displaying a CD45(+)B220(+)CD138(+) phenotype, which is typical for plasma cells. This phenotype mirrored the large proportion (54.0% +/- 6.1%) of CD45(+)B220(+)CD138(+) intratumoral B cells (i.e., plasma cells) in Lewis lung carcinoma tumors. We next confirmed that the differentiation of CD45(+)B220(+)CD138(+) B cells to functionally active CD45(+)B220(+)CD138(+) plasma cells required contact with TANs, was independent of T cells, and resulted in IgG production. We further identified membranal B-cell activating factor (BAFF) on TANs as a potential contact mechanism mediating B-cell differentiation, as blocking BAFF-receptor (BAFF-R) significantly reduced IgG production by 20%. Our study, therefore, demonstrates that TANs drive the recruitment and modulation of B cells into plasma cells in the TME, hence opening new avenues in the targeting of the immune system in cancer.

Automated summary

The study suggests that tumor-associated neutrophils play a crucial role in recruiting and modulating B cells into plasma cells in the tumor microenvironment, thereby opening new avenues in cancer immunotherapy targeting strategies.