Characteristics of B lymphocyte infiltration in HPV<sup>+</sup> head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
Zhang Si-wei, Bozhi Wang, Fen Ma, Fangjia Tong, Bingqing Yan, Tianyang Liu, Huanhuan Xie, Lianhao Song, Siyang Yu, Lanlan Wei
Abstract
Abstract Human papillomavirus (HPV) is an important etiological factor of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). HPV + HNSCC patients usually have a better prognosis, which probably results from the higher infiltration of B lymphocytes. This study was purposed to detect the infiltration of B lymphocyte subsets and the correlation between B lymphocyte subsets and the prognosis in HPV‐related HNSCC. In this study, 124 HPV + and 513 HPV − HNSCC samples were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database for transcriptomic analysis. Infiltration of B lymphocytes subsets was detected with 7 HPV + HNSCC and 13 HPV − HNSCC tissues through immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. One HPV − HNSCC sample was detected with single‐cell sequencing for chemokine analysis. In the results, the infiltration of plasma cells (CD19 + CD38 + ) and memory B cells (MS4A1 + CD27 + ) was higher in HPV + HNSCC samples. High infiltration of plasma cells and memory B cells was related to a better prognosis. High density of B lymphocytes was positively correlated with high CXCL13 production mainly from CD4 + T lymphocytes in HNSCC. These results indicated that a high density of plasma cells and memory B cells could predict excellent prognosis. CD4 + T lymphocytes might affect B lymphocytes and their subsets through the CXCL13/CXCR5 axis in HNSCC.