Expression of the AID protein in normal and neoplastic B cells

Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (10) ◽  
pp. 3318-3325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Pasqualucci ◽  
Roberta Guglielmino ◽  
Jane Houldsworth ◽  
Jessica Mohr ◽  
Said Aoufouchi ◽  
...  

Abstract Somatic hypermutation (SHM) targets primarily the immunoglobulin variable region (IgV) genes in germinal center (GC) B cells, thereby allowing antibody affinity maturation. A malfunction of SHM, termed aberrant somatic hypermutation (ASHM), was found in about 50% of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCLs), leading to mutations in the 5′ sequences of multiple genes, including oncogenes. Although the SHM mechanism is largely unknown, it was shown to require the activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) gene. AID mRNA is expressed in GC B cells and GC-derived lymphomas, but the pattern of expression of the AID protein is not known. Using 2 specific antibodies, here we show that the AID protein can be detected in GC centroblasts and their transformed counterpart (Burkitt lymphoma) but not in pre-GC B cells and post-GC neoplasms, including B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia and multiple myeloma. DLBCLs displayed variable levels of AID expression, which did not correlate with IgV ongoing hypermutation, ASHM, or disease subtype. Finally, both in normal and malignant B cells the AID protein appeared predominantly localized in the cytoplasm. These results indicate that the AID protein is specifically expressed in normal and transformed GC B cells; nonetheless, its predominantly cytoplasmic localization suggests that additional mechanisms may regulate its function and may be altered during lymphomagenesis. (Blood. 2004;104:3318-3325)

2008 ◽  
Vol 205 (10) ◽  
pp. 2199-2206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia G. de Yébenes ◽  
Laura Belver ◽  
David G. Pisano ◽  
Susana González ◽  
Aranzazu Villasante ◽  
...  

Activated B cells reshape their primary antibody repertoire after antigen encounter by two molecular mechanisms: somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class switch recombination (CSR). SHM and CSR are initiated by activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) through the deamination of cytosine residues on the immunoglobulin loci, which leads to the generation of DNA mutations or double-strand break intermediates. As a bystander effect, endogenous AID levels can also promote the generation of chromosome translocations, suggesting that the fine tuning of AID expression may be critical to restrict B cell lymphomagenesis. To determine whether microRNAs (miRNAs) play a role in the regulation of AID expression, we performed a functional screening of an miRNA library and identified miRNAs that regulate CSR. One such miRNA, miR-181b, impairs CSR when expressed in activated B cells, and results in the down-regulation of AID mRNA and protein levels. We found that the AID 3′ untranslated region contains multiple putative binding sequences for miR-181b and that these sequences can be directly targeted by miR-181b. Overall, our results provide evidence for a new regulatory mechanism that restricts AID activity and can therefore be relevant to prevent B cell malignant transformation.


Blood ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 108 (11) ◽  
pp. 223-223
Author(s):  
Laura Pasqualucci ◽  
Mara Compagno ◽  
Tongwei Mo ◽  
Paula Smith ◽  
Herbert C. Morse ◽  
...  

Abstract Most B cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (B-NHL) derive from germinal center (GC) B cells and their pathogenesis is associated with the accumulation of distinct genetic lesions, including chromosomal translocations and a more recently identified mechanism of genomic instability, termed aberrant somatic hypermutation. These alterations are thought to be due to mistakes occurring during two GC-associated immunoglobulin (Ig) genes remodeling processes: class switch recombination (CSR) and somatic hypermutation (SHM). However, this model has never been formally proven. To conclusively investigate the role of CSR and SHM in the pathogenesis of B-NHL, we examined whether lymphoma development in mice requires the function of activation induced cytidine deaminase (AID), a DNA editing enzyme expressed specifically in GC and activated B cells and essential for both processes. Three transgenic mouse models were generated by crossing lymphoma-prone mice (λMYC, λMYC/IμHABCL6 and IμHABCL6) with mice (AID−/−) that are unable to undergo both SHM and CSR. The λMYC mice develop a diffusely infiltrating monoclonal proliferation of pre-GC origin, with unmutated IgV genes and lack of BCL6 expression, and therefore presumably independent from AID-associated DNA remodeling events. Conversely, lymphomas in λMYC/IμHABCL6 and IμHABCL6 mice recapitulate GC/post GC-derived malignancies, in that the former display somatically mutated IgV genes and upregulation of post-GC markers (CD138) in most of the cases, while the latter develop a splenic lymphoproliferative syndrome that culminates, past 12 months of age, in clonal B cell lymphomas with DLBCL morphology and somatically mutated IgV genes (~70% of the animals) (Cattoretti et al., Cancer Cell 7:445–455, 2005). Mice were monitored for tumor incidence and survival, and a combination of histologic, immunophenotypic and gene expression profiling analysis was used for tumor characterization. As expected, no significant differences in event-free survival and lymphoma type were observed between AID-proficient and AID-deficient λMYC mice, in agreement with their pre-GC derivation. Conversely, a phenotypic shift of the tumor was observed in λMYC/IμHABCL6 mice when bred into an AID−/− background, with >80% of the cases (N=21/26) reverting to a pre-GC phenotype (loss of GC/post GC markers) undistinguishable from that of the λMYC and λMYC/AID−/− mice. Gene expression profile analysis on representative cases (N=10 λMYC/IμHABCL6 and 5 each for λMYC, λMYC/AIDKO, λMYC/IμHABCL6/AIDKO) confirmed significant phenotypic similarities between pre-GC derived λMYC lymphomas and the λMYC/IμHABCL6/AID −/− lymphomas, which co-segregated in a separate cluster from λMYC/IμHABCL6 tumors. Analogously, a significant reduction in DLBCL frequency was observed in the IμHABCL6/AIDKO cohort as compared to IμHABCL6 mice (N= 4/19, 21% vs 8/14, 57%; p=0.03). Taken together, these results indicate that GC-derived lymphomas cannot develop in the absence of AID, thereby providing direct support to the notion that AID-mediated mistakes in antigen receptor gene modification events (CSR and SHM) represent major contributors to B-NHL pathogenesis.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Voss ◽  
Alicia Gonzalez-Martin ◽  
Raiees Andrabi ◽  
Roberta P. Fuller ◽  
Ben Murrell ◽  
...  

We have developed a method to introduce novel paratopes into the human antibody repertoire by modifying the immunoglobulin genes of mature B cells directly using genome editing technologies. We used CRISPR-Cas9 in a homology directed repair strategy, to replace the heavy chain (HC) variable region in B cell lines with that from an HIV broadly neutralizing antibody, PG9. Our strategy is designed to function in cells that have undergone VDJ recombination using any combination of variable (V), diversity (D) and joining (J) genes. The modified locus expresses PG9 HC which pairs with native light chains resulting in the cell surface expression of HIV specific B cell receptors (BCRs). Endogenous activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) in engineered cells allowed for Ig class switching and generated BCR variants with improved anti-HIV neutralizing activity. Thus, BCRs engineered in this way retain the genetic flexibility normally required for affinity maturation during adaptive immune responses.


Blood ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 101 (10) ◽  
pp. 4029-4032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Oppezzo ◽  
Françoise Vuillier ◽  
Yuri Vasconcelos ◽  
Gérard Dumas ◽  
Christian Magnac ◽  
...  

Abstract In B cells, somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class switch recombination (CSR) depend on the activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) gene product, although the precise mode of action of AID remains unknown. Because some chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) B cells can undergo CSR without SHM, it constitutes a useful model to dissect AID function. In this work, we have studied AID expression, the presence of mutations in the preswitch μ DNA region, CSR, and the SHM in 65 CLL patients. Our results demonstrate that unmutated CLL B cells can constitutively express AID and that AID expression is associated with the presence of mutations in the preswitch region and in clonally related isotype-switched transcripts. They also demonstrate that in CLL without constitutive AID expression, AID induction on stimulation results in preswitch mutations and the CSR process. Our results show a dissociation between SHM and CSR in CLL and suggest that, in this disease, AID would require additional help for carrying out the SHM process.


2005 ◽  
Vol 201 (9) ◽  
pp. 1467-1478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nai-Ying Zheng ◽  
Kenneth Wilson ◽  
Matthew Jared ◽  
Patrick C. Wilson

It is believed that immunoglobulin-variable region gene (IgV) somatic hypermutation (SHM) is initiated by activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) upon deamination of cytidine to deoxyuracil. Patch-excision repair of these lesions involving error prone DNA polymerases such as polη causes mutations at all base positions. If not repaired, the deaminated nucleotides on the coding and noncoding strands result in C-to-T and G-to-A exchanges, respectively. Herein it is reported that IgV gene evolution has been considerably influenced by the need to accommodate extensive C deaminations and the resulting accumulation of C-to-T and G-to-A exchanges. Although seemingly counterintuitive, the precise placement of C and G nucleotides causes most C-to-T and G-to-A mutations to be silent or conservative. We hypothesize that without intricate positioning of C and G nucleotides the efficiency of affinity maturation would be significantly reduced due to a dominance of replacements caused by C and G transition mutations. The complexity of these evolved biases in codon use are compounded by the precise concomitant hotspot/coldspot targeting of AID activity and Polη errors to maximize SHM in the CDRs and minimize mutations in the FWRs.


Blood ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 102 (9) ◽  
pp. 3333-3339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilia Albesiano ◽  
Bradley T. Messmer ◽  
Rajendra N. Damle ◽  
Steven L. Allen ◽  
Kanti R. Rai ◽  
...  

AbstractThe degree of somatic mutation of immunoglobulin variable (Ig V) region genes is an important prognostic indicator of clinical course and outcome in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL), although the reason for this association remains unclear. Furthermore, some B-CLL cells continue to acquire Ig V gene mutations after the transforming event. Because activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is an essential component of the canonical somatic hypermutation process in healthy B cells, its expression in B-CLL is potentially relevant to the disease. We detected full-length AID transcripts and 3 splice variants by conventional reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in approximately 40% of the cases examined. More sensitive real-time quantitative PCR detected AID transcripts in virtually all B-CLL samples tested, although the range of transcript levels was very large between different cases and varied within individual cases over time. Limiting dilution assays revealed that AID expression was restricted to a small fraction of the leukemic cells in the blood. However, this small fraction is not unique in its ability to express AID, because in vitro stimulation of B-CLL cells with appropriate stimuli significantly increased the fraction of AID-expressing cells. These data suggest that AID-mediated DNA alterations may occur in a variably sized, minor subset of B-CLL cells at any given time.


2001 ◽  
Vol 194 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Meffre ◽  
Nadia Catalan ◽  
Françoise Seltz ◽  
Alain Fischer ◽  
Michel C. Nussenzweig ◽  
...  

High-affinity antibodies produced by memory B cells differ from antibodies produced in naive B cells in two respects. First, many of these antibodies show somatic hypermutation, and second, the repertoire of antibodies expressed in memory responses is highly selected. To determine whether somatic hypermutation is responsible for the shift in the antibody repertoire during affinity maturation, we analyzed the immunoglobulin lambda light chain (Igλ) repertoire expressed by naive and antigen-selected memory B cells in humans. We found that the Igλ repertoire differs between naive and memory B cells and that this shift in the repertoire does not occur in the absence of somatic hypermutation in patients lacking activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). Our work suggests that somatic hypermutation makes a significant contribution to shaping the antigen-selected antibody repertoire in humans.


Blood ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 112 (12) ◽  
pp. 4675-4682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaosheng Wu ◽  
Jaime R. Darce ◽  
Sook Kyung Chang ◽  
Grzegorz S. Nowakowski ◽  
Diane F. Jelinek

Abstract The mutagenic enzyme activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is required for immunoglobulin class switch recombination (CSR) and somatic hypermutation (SHM) in germinal center (GC) B cells. Deregulated expression of AID is associated with various B-cell malignancies and, currently, it remains unclear how AID activity is extinguished to avoid illegitimate mutations. AID has also been shown to be alternatively spliced in malignant B cells, and there is limited evidence that this also occurs in normal blood B cells. The functional significance of these splice variants remains unknown. Here we show that normal GC human B cells and blood memory B cells similarly express AID splice variants and show for the first time that AID splicing variants are singly expressed in individual normal B cells as well as malignant B cells from chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients. We further demonstrate that the alternative AID splice variants display different activities ranging from inactivation of CSR to inactivation or heightened SHM activity. Our data therefore suggest that CSR and SHM are differentially switched off by varying the expression of splicing products of AID at the individual cell level. Most importantly, our findings suggest a novel tumor suppression mechanism by which unnecessary AID mutagenic activities are promptly contained for GC B cells.


Blood ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 101 (12) ◽  
pp. 4903-4908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen McCarthy ◽  
William G. Wierda ◽  
Lynn L. Barron ◽  
Candy C. Cromwell ◽  
Jing Wang ◽  
...  

AbstractIn chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), analysis of immunoglobulin heavy chain variable regions for somatic hypermutation identifies 2 prognostic subsets, mutated and unmutated. Investigators have postulated that unmutated and mutated CLL arises from malignant transformation of pre– and post–germinal center (GC) B cells, respectively. Alternatively, unmutated cases may arise from B cells stimulated by T-cell–independent antigens or from GC B cells with inactive somatic hypermutation. Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), a protein essential for somatic hypermutation, is expressed by GC B cells in which this process occurs. We investigated AID mRNA expression in 20 CLL cases. In 8 cases we detected high expression of wild-type AID mRNA and 2 splice variants; in 12 cases and 5 normal peripheral blood B-cell samples we detected no expression using standard conditions. Of 8 CLL cases that highly expressed AID, 7 were unmutated, suggesting that this subset may arise from GC-experienced B cells with inactive somatic hypermutation, and may predict prognosis.


Blood ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 105 (6) ◽  
pp. 2495-2503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Oppezzo ◽  
Gérard Dumas ◽  
Ana Inés Lalanne ◽  
Béatrice Payelle-Brogard ◽  
Christian Magnac ◽  
...  

Abstract Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is key to initiating somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class switch recombination (CSR), but its mode of action and regulation remains unclear. Since Pax-5 and Id-2 transcription factors play an opposing role in AID regulation, we have studied the expression of Pax-5, Id-2, and prdm-1 genes in 54 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) B cells. In 21 cases, presence of AID is constantly associated with high expression of the complete form of the Pax-5 gene (Pax-5a) and lower expression of the Id-2 and prdm-1 transcripts. In 33 cases, the absence of AID expression and CSR is associated with a reduction of Pax-5a and the appearance of a spliced form with a deletion in exon 8 (Pax-5/Δ-Ex8). Stimulation with CD40L+interleukin 4 (IL-4) induces CSR, the presence of AID transcripts, up-regulation of Pax-5a and down-regulation of Pax-5/Δ-Ex8, and Id-2 and prdm-1 transcripts. Pax-5a and Pax-5/Δ-Ex8 are translated into 2 isoforms of the B-cell–specific activator protein (BSAP) and both are able to bind the AID-promoter region. Overall, these results suggest that Pax-5/Δ-Ex8 could play an important role in the control of its own transcription and indirectly in AID expression and CSR.


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