Nature Communications (Nov 2024)

Defective germinal center selection results in persistence of self-reactive B cells from the primary to the secondary repertoire in Primary Antiphospholipid Syndrome

  • Yannick Dieudonné,
  • Raquel Lorenzetti,
  • Julien Rottura,
  • Iga Janowska,
  • Quentin Frenger,
  • Léa Jacquel,
  • Olivier Vollmer,
  • Francesco Carbone,
  • Zhu Chengsong,
  • Marine Luka,
  • Sabine Depauw,
  • Nadège Wadier,
  • Stéphane Giorgiutti,
  • Benoît Nespola,
  • Agathe Herb,
  • Reinhard Edmund Voll,
  • Aurélien Guffroy,
  • Vincent Poindron,
  • Mickaël Ménager,
  • Thierry Martin,
  • Pauline Soulas-Sprauel,
  • Marta Rizzi,
  • Anne-Sophie Korganow,
  • Vincent Gies

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54228-8
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 18

Abstract

Read online

Abstract Primary antiphospholipid syndrome (PAPS) is a life-threatening clotting disorder mediated by pathogenic autoantibodies. Here we dissect the origin of self-reactive B cells in human PAPS using peripheral blood and bone marrow of patients with triple-positive PAPS via combined single-cell RNA sequencing, B cell receptors (BCR) repertoire profiling, CITEseq analysis and single cell immortalization. We find that antiphospholipid (aPL)-specific B cells are present in the naive compartment, polyreactive, and derived from the natural repertoire. Furthermore, B cells with aPL specificities are not eliminated in patients with PAPS, persist until the memory and long-lived plasma cell stages, likely after defective germinal center selection, while becoming less polyreactive. Lastly, compared with the non-PAPS cells, PAPS B cells exhibit distinct IFN and APRIL signature as well as dysregulated mTORC1 and MYC pathways. Our findings may thus elucidate the survival mechanisms of these autoreactive B cells and suggest potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of PAPS.