Single-cell analysis identifies dynamic gene expression networks that govern B cell development and transformation

Integration of external signals and B-lymphoid transcription factor activities organise B cell lineage commitment through alternating cycles of proliferation and differentiation, producing a diverse repertoire of mature B cells. We use single-cell transcriptomics/proteomics to identify differentially expressed gene networks across B cell development and correlate these networks with subtypes of B cell leukemia. Here we show unique transcriptional signatures that refine the pre-B cell expansion stages into pre-BCR-dependent and pre-BCR-independent proliferative phases. These changes correlate with reciprocal changes in expression of the transcription factor EBF1 and the RNA binding protein YBX3, that are defining features of the pre-BCR-dependent stage. Using pseudotime analysis, we further characterize the expression kinetics of different biological modalities across B cell development, including transcription factors, cytokines, chemokines, and their associated receptors. Our findings demonstrate the underlying heterogeneity of developing B cells and characterise developmental nodes linked to B cell transformation.

IRF4 Has a Unique Role in Early B Cell Development and Acts Prior to CD21 Expression to Control Marginal Zone B Cell Numbers

Strict control of B lymphocyte development is required for the ability to mount humoral immune responses to diverse foreign antigens while remaining self-tolerant. In the bone marrow, B lineage cells transit through several developmental stages in which they assemble a functional B cell receptor in a stepwise manner. The immunoglobulin heavy chain gene is rearranged at the pro-B stage. At the large pre-B stage, cells with a functional heavy chain expand in response to signals from IL-7 and the pre-BCR. Cells then cease proliferation at the small pre-B stage and rearrange the immunoglobulin light chain gene. The fully formed BCR is subsequently expressed on the surface of immature B cells and autoreactive cells are culled by central tolerance mechanisms. Once in the periphery, transitional B cells develop into mature B cell subsets such as marginal zone and follicular B cells. These developmental processes are controlled by transcription factor networks, central to which are IRF4 and IRF8. These were thought to act redundantly during B cell development in the bone marrow, with their functions diverging in the periphery where IRF4 limits the number of marginal zone B cells and is required for germinal center responses and plasma cell differentiation. Because of IRF4’s unique role in mature B cells, we hypothesized that it may also have functions earlier in B cell development that cannot be compensated for by IRF8. Indeed, we find that IRF4 has a unique role in upregulating the pre-B cell marker CD25, limiting IL-7 responsiveness, and promoting migration to CXCR4 such that IRF4-deficient mice have a partial block at the pre-B cell stage. We also find that IRF4 acts in early transitional B cells to restrict marginal zone B cell development, as deletion of IRF4 in mature B cells with CD21-cre impairs plasma cell differentiation but has no effect on marginal zone B cell numbers. These studies highlight IRF4 as the dominant IRF family member in early B lymphopoiesis.

Hygiene Hypothesis as the Etiology of Kawasaki Disease: Dysregulation of Early B Cell Development

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute systemic vasculitis that occurs predominantly in children under 5 years of age. Despite much study, the etiology of KD remains unknown. However, epidemiological and immunological data support the hygiene hypothesis as a possible etiology. It is thought that more sterile or clean modern living environments due to increased use of sanitizing agents, antibiotics, and formula feeding result in a lack of immunological challenges, leading to defective or dysregulated B cell development, accompanied by low IgG and high IgE levels. A lack of B cell immunity may increase sensitivity to unknown environmental triggers that are nonpathogenic in healthy individuals. Genetic studies of KD show that all of the KD susceptibility genes identified by genome-wide association studies are involved in B cell development and function, particularly in early B cell development (from the pro-B to pre-B cell stage). The fact that intravenous immunoglobulin is an effective therapy for KD supports this hypothesis. In this review, I discuss clinical, epidemiological, immunological, and genetic studies showing that the etiopathogenesis of KD in infants and toddlers can be explained by the hygiene hypothesis, and particularly by defects or dysregulation during early B cell development.

The mitochondrial iron transporter ABCB7 is required for B cell development, proliferation, and class switch recombination in mice

Iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters are cofactors essential for the activity of numerous enzymes including DNA polymerases, helicases, and glycosylases. They are synthesized in the mitochondria as Fe-S intermediates and are exported to the cytoplasm for maturation by the mitochondrial transporter ABCB7. Here, we demonstrate that ABCB7 is required for bone marrow B cell development, proliferation, and class switch recombination, but is dispensable for peripheral B cell homeostasis in mice. Conditional deletion of ABCB7 using Mb1-cre resulted in a severe block in bone marrow B cell development at the pro-B cell stage. The loss of ABCB7 did not alter expression of transcription factors required for B cell specification or commitment. While increased intracellular iron was observed in ABCB7-deficient pro-B cells, this did not lead to increased cellular or mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, ferroptosis, or apoptosis. Interestingly, loss of ABCB7 led to replication-induced DNA damage in pro-B cells, independent of VDJ recombination, and these cells had evidence of slowed DNA replication. Stimulated ABCB7-deficient splenic B cells from CD23-cre mice also had a striking loss of proliferation and a defect in class switching. Thus, ABCB7 is essential for early B cell development, proliferation, and class switch recombination.

Chromatin Content Capture Reveals Acute Leukaemia Oncogenic Vulnerability Point in Human B Cell Development

Human B cell development in adult human bone marrow (BM) is tightly regulated through well-defined stages to produce adaptive immune cells with assembled and functional B cell antigen receptor (BCR)(Martin et al., 2016). To produce mature B cells with functional immunoglobulin receptors, B cell progenitors must undergo multiple stages of highly regulated chromatin remodelling and transcriptional reprogramming which correspond to unique patterns of surface protein expression (Nutt and Kee, 2007). This complex process is frequently dysregulated in B cell neoplasia such as B cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (B-ALL). B-ALL is highly heterogenous in its phenotypic and clinical presentation, as well as in its underlying molecular features such as DNA methylation patterns and genetic aberrations (Cobaleda and Sánchez-García, 2009). The lack of general mechanism of leukemogenesis has made it difficult to identify when and where adult and pediatric B-ALL blasts diverge from normal B cell development. Here we show that across 5 B-ALL patients and 3 cell lines with diverse phenotypic and clinical presentations, blasts are epigenetically arrested at a conserved point within healthy human B cell development. First, we sought to establish a trajectory of normal B cell development to delineate the phenotypic and concomitant epigenetic changes occurring in BM progenitors as they differentiate into naïve B cells. To capture phenotype, function, and epigenetic state via single cell chromatin content (chromotype) of developing B cells in BM, we developed a multiplexed, high throughput, single cell proteomic method (chromotyping) to simultaneously measure cell surface markers, intracellular regulators such as transcription factors and chromatin structure regulators such as histone post-translational modifications (i.e. H3K4me3, H3K27me3, H2AK119ubi) and chromatin re-modelers (i.e. CTCF, DNMT1, MLL1). Using these surrogates for single cell, global chromatin content, we notably identified 3 coordinated epigenetic inflection or switch (S) points in healthy B cell development corresponding to previously characterized phenotypic landmarks of STAT5 signalling and active re-arrangement of IgH loci (S1), CD24 expression-linked high translation and proliferation (S2), and IgM and CD20 expression-linked BCR assembly completion (S3) (Bendall et al., 2014). To determine how these coordinated chromotypes translated to chromatin accessibility and primed gene regulation networks, we isolated BM B cell population from these chromatin content transition points and analysed them with our modified ATAC-seq protocol, InTAC-seq (Baskar et al., 2021). Strikingly, the chromatin accessibility landscape revealed putative oncogenic priming with high activity of leukemic TFs such as PAX5, TCF3, ZEB1 and ID4 predominantly at S2 and some at S3 switch points. By integrating our InTAC-seq data with publicly available single cell ATAC and RNA seq data on BM, we located this oncogenic primed state as existing from S2 to before S3 (IgH rearranged, late pro- / Pre-B cell stage) in healthy B cell development. This integration further associated this state with high activity of ASCL1 (role in chromatin remodelling) and high expression of STMN1 (Leukaemia-associated phosphoprotein 18). Finally we showed that across B-ALL patients (n=5) and cell lines (REH, NALM6, SUBP15), chromatin accessibility of neoplastic B cells indeed continue to occupy this point of oncogenic vulnerability in the B cell developmental space from S2 to right before S3 in our integrated scATAC map, despite variable immunophenotypes. This corresponds to a coordinated minima in our chromotyping map (lowest, coordinated abundance of chromatin structure regulators across trajectory). Further analysis of B-ALL patients reinforced the divergence between immunophenotypic and epigenetic heterogeneity within and between samples. Taken together, our findings identify key epigenetic switch points in B cell development and their underlying chromatin accessibility and gene expression patterns. Consequently, we reveal a point of epigenetic vulnerability in healthy B cell development that could be predisposed to leukemic transformation. This work opens up the possibility for new diagnostic strategies for B-ALL utilizing chromatin content and could pave the way for epigenetic modulation-based treatments beyond DNA methylation inhibition. Disclosures Davis: Novartis Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding.