Transcription profiling of peripheral B cells in antibody-positive primary Sjögren's syndrome reveals upregulated expression of CX3CR1 and a type I and type II interferon signature.

Imgenberg-Kreuz J, Sandling JK, Björk A, Nordlund J, Kvarnström M, Eloranta ML, Rönnblom L, Wahren-Herlenius M, Syvänen AC, Nordmark G

Scand. J. Immunol. 87 (5) e12662 [2018-05-00; online 2018-04-15]

B cells play a key role in the pathogenesis of primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). The aim of this study was to analyse the transcriptome of CD19+ B cells from patients with pSS and healthy controls to decipher the B cell-specific contribution to pSS. RNA from purified CD19+ B cells from 12 anti-SSA antibody-positive untreated female patients with pSS and 20 healthy blood donors was subjected to whole transcriptome sequencing. A false discovery rate corrected significance threshold of α < 0.05 was applied to define differential gene expression. As validation, gene expression in B cells from 17 patients with pSS and 16 healthy controls was analysed using a targeted gene panel. RNA-sequencing identified 4047 differentially expressed autosomal genes in pSS B cells. Upregulated expression of type I and type II interferon (IFN)-induced genes was observed, establishing an IFN signature in pSS B cells. Among the top upregulated and validated genes were CX3CR1, encoding the fractalkine receptor involved in regulation of B-cell malignancies, CCL5/RANTES and CCR1. Increased expression of several members of the TNF superfamily was also identified; TNFSF4/Ox40L, TNFSF10/TRAIL, TNFSF13B/BAFF, TNFRSF17/BCMA as well as S100A8 and -A9/calprotectin, TLR7, STAT1 and STAT2. Among genes with downregulated expression in pSS B cells were SOCS1 and SOCS3, CD70 and TNFAIP3/A20. We conclude that B cells from patients with anti-SSA antibody-positive pSS display immune activation with upregulated expression of chemokines, chemokine receptors and a prominent type I and type II IFN signature, while suppressors of cytokine signalling are downregulated. This adds insight into the autoimmune process and suggests potential targets for future functional studies.

Bioinformatics Compute and Storage [Service]

NGI Uppsala (SNP&SEQ Technology Platform) [Service]

National Genomics Infrastructure [Service]

PubMed 29655283

DOI 10.1111/sji.12662

Crossref 10.1111/sji.12662