Type-I-Interferons induce the decimation of antiviral B cells at the onset of chronic infection [RNA-seq]

Abstract: Immune subversion represents a hallmark of persistent infection, but microbial suppression of B cell responses remains mechanistically ill-defined. Adoptive transfer experiments in a chronic viral infection model evidenced the rapid and profound decimation of B cells that responded to virus or to concomitantly administered protein. Decimation affected naïve and memory B cells and resulted from biased differentiation into short-lived antibody-secreting cells. It was driven by type I interferon (IFN-I) signaling to several cell types including dendritic cells, T cells and myeloid cells. Durable B cell responses were restored upon IFN-I receptor blockade or, partially, when depleting myeloid cells or key IFN-I-induced cytokines. B cell decimation represents a molecular mechanism of humoral immune subversion and reflects an unsustainable “all-in” response of B cells in IFN-I-driven inflammation. Overall design: We adoptively transferred naïve KL25HL cells (LCMV-WE-GP-specific B cells) to aIFNAR- or isotype control-treated syngeneic recipient mice, followed by rLCMV-Cl13/WE-GP. On day 3 of infection, spleen were harvested and proliferated KL25HL B cell progeny (CD45.1+B220+CFSElo) were FACS-sorted and total RNA was processed for RNAseq. n=4