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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1513303
This article is part of the Research Topic Mastering the Dynamics of Tumor Plasticity: Epigenetic Regulation, Cell Fate, and Microenvironment Interactions View all 7 articles

The monitoring of B lymphocytes in non-lymphoma patients following rituximab treatment

Provisionally accepted
Linjie Dong Linjie Dong 1,2Lin Yan Lin Yan 1Yi Li Yi Li 1Mei Li Mei Li 1Weihua Feng Weihua Feng 1Xiaoqiong Li Xiaoqiong Li 2Jiaxi Yue Jiaxi Yue 1Erdi Zhang Erdi Zhang 1Yao Luo Yao Luo 1*Yangjuan Bai Yangjuan Bai 1,2
  • 1 West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
  • 2 Meishan People's Hospital, Meishan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    RTX was initially used for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma treatment and has been used in the clinical treatment of various autoimmune diseases as well as in antirejection and immune induction therapy for kidney transplant recipients. Following RTX treatment, the time for B cell regeneration varies among patients, but there is no unified recommendation for the frequency of B cell monitoring. This study aimed to investigate the clinical significance of periodic monitoring of peripheral blood B lymphocytes in individualized immunotherapy following rituximab (RTX) treatment in patients with different diseases. This study included 488 patients with different diseases divided in four groups who were hospitalized and followed up from April 2017 to March 2024 (including 77, 161, 120, and 130 cases of neuromyelitis optica, pemphigus, membranous nephropathy, and kidney transplant recipients, respectively). Dynamic changes in percentage and absolute count of peripheral blood B lymphocytes before and after RTX treatment were investigated in the four groups, as well as the number of B cell subsets in 32 patients with optic neuromyelitis after RTX treatment. Although most patients showed high expression of B cells after 24 weeks, less than 6.8% of patients still began to experience B cell regeneration within 4 weeks. Thus, regular B cell monitoring following RTX treatment is helpful to better track the remission and recurrence of the disease and provide effective laboratory support for the selection and implementation of individualized immunotherapy.

    Keywords: rituximab, Membranous nephropathy, Kidney Transplantation, Neuromyelitis Optica, Pemphigus, B lymphocytes

    Received: 18 Oct 2024; Accepted: 06 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Dong, Yan, Li, Li, Feng, Li, Yue, Zhang, Luo and Bai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yao Luo, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.