{"id":57537,"date":"2026-03-05T01:20:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T00:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/response-of-b-cells-specific-for-polyomavirus-derived-oncoprotein-is-predictive-of-merkel-cell-carcinoma-tumor-control\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T01:20:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T00:20:03","slug":"response-of-b-cells-specific-for-polyomavirus-derived-oncoprotein-is-predictive-of-merkel-cell-carcinoma-tumor-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/response-of-b-cells-specific-for-polyomavirus-derived-oncoprotein-is-predictive-of-merkel-cell-carcinoma-tumor-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Response of B cells specific for polyomavirus-derived oncoprotein is predictive of Merkel cell carcinoma tumor control"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><b>Cancer Immunol Res<\/b>. 2026 Mar 4. doi: 10.1158\/2326-6066.CIR-25-0950. Online ahead of print.<\/p>\n<p><b>ABSTRACT<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Merkel cell carcinomas (MCC) typically arise from clonal integration of the Merkel cell polyomavirus. Immunogenic viral oncoproteins then lead to tumorigenesis. Oncoprotein-specific T cells are essential for anti-MCC immunity, but it is unclear whether B cells promote tumor control. Here, we analyzed the frequency and phenotype of viral oncoprotein-specific and total B cells in blood samples from 47 patients with MCC and tumor samples from another 19 patients with MCC. The phenotype of blood B cells did not correlate with MCC patient outcomes. In contrast, all 11 patients with robust oncoprotein-specific antibody-secreting and\/or germinal center B cells in tumors experienced long-term MCC control. In vitro, B cells engineered to be specific for viral oncoproteins increased the sensitivity of oncoprotein-specific CD4+ T cells by over 50-fold. Together, our findings suggest that cancer-specific B cells promote antitumor immunity via increased responses by T cells and that cancer-specific augmentation of B cells could be therapeutically relevant.<\/p>\n<p>PMID:<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/41779832\/?utm_source=SimplePie&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_content=101614637&amp;ff=20260304191953&amp;v=2.19.0.post6+133c1fe\">41779832<\/a> | DOI:<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1158\/2326-6066.CIR-25-0950\">10.1158\/2326-6066.CIR-25-0950<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cancer Immunol Res. 2026 Mar 4. doi: 10.1158\/2326-6066.CIR-25-0950. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Merkel cell carcinomas (MCC) typically arise from clonal integration of the Merkel cell polyomavirus. Immunogenic viral oncoproteins then lead to tumorigenesis. Oncoprotein-specific T cells are essential for anti-MCC immunity, but it is unclear whether B cells promote tumor control. Here, we analyzed &#8230; <a title=\"Response of B cells specific for polyomavirus-derived oncoprotein is predictive of Merkel cell carcinoma tumor control\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/response-of-b-cells-specific-for-polyomavirus-derived-oncoprotein-is-predictive-of-merkel-cell-carcinoma-tumor-control\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Response of B cells specific for polyomavirus-derived oncoprotein is predictive of Merkel cell carcinoma tumor control\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancer-immunology-reserch","category-publicaciones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}