Transcriptional profiling of murine ABC-DLBCL-like tumors [RNA-seq]

We have developed a novel immunocompetent multi-lesion mouse model of activated B cell diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (ABC-DLBCL; the pBIC mice) that recapitulates relatively fast the molecular, cellular and tumor microenvironment of aggressive human ABC-DLBCL. We demonstrate that perturbed p53 signaling cooperates with constitutive NF-kB activation in GC-experienced plasmablasts with blocked terminal differentiation to promote lymphomagenesis and tumor progression through triggering downstream intracellular molecular addictions (e.g. deregulating Foxp1 and AID pathways) and intercellular immunosuppressive signals for evading anti-tumoral responses (e.g. MHC-II antigen presentation and deregulating PD-L1/PD-1 immune checkpoint). Our immunocompetent ABC-DLBCL murine model provides in vivo evidence that PD-1 blockade cooperates with anti-CD20-based current standard-of-care therapy to reshape the immunosuppressive TME and facilitate long-term anti-tumoral responses. Therefore, our results support that immune checkpoints may hold promising therapeutic potential in ABC-DLBCL. RNAseq profiling of FACS-sorted reporter positive splenic B cells (B220+GFP+/YFP+) from two ABC-DLBCL lymphoma murine models (3 BIC and 6 pBIC mice) compared to normal controls (3 YC mice).