Rituximab inhibits B-cell receptor signaling
- 4 February 2010
- journal article
- Published by American Society of Hematology in Blood
- Vol. 115 (5), 985-994
- https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2009-08-237537
Abstract
Rituximab (RTX), a monoclonal antibody directed against the CD20 protein, is a drug commonly used in the treatment of B-cell–derived lymphoid neoplasias and of antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases. In addition to cell- and complement-mediated B-cell depletion, RTX is thought to inhibit B-cell survival and proliferation through negative regulation of canonical signaling pathways involving Akt, ERK, and mammalian target of rapamycin. However, surprisingly, although B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling has been considered critical for normal and more recently, for neoplastic B cells, the hypothesis that RTX could target BCR has never been investigated. Using follicular lymphoma cell lines as models, as well as normal B cells, we show here, for the first time, that pretreatment with RTX results in a time-dependent inhibition of the BCR-signaling cascade involving Lyn, Syk, PLCγ2, Akt, and ERK, and calcium mobilization. The inhibitory effect of RTX correlates with decrease of raft-associated cholesterol, complete inhibition of BCR relocalization into lipid raft microdomains, and down-regulation of BCR immunoglobulin expression. Thus, RTX-mediated alteration of BCR expression, dynamics, and signaling might contribute to the immunosuppressive activity of the drug.Keywords
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