Antigens in CLL: themes and variations

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BlankBlood, 13 May 2010, Vol. 115, No. 19, pp. 3855-3856.

Antigens in CLL: themes and variations

Kostas Stamatopoulos

G. PAPANICOLAOU HOSPITAL

In this issue of Blood, Chu and colleagues report that reactivity with a

particular type of apoptotic cells is a common feature of CLL, especially of the

unmutated subtype.1 Intriguingly, high binding to such apoptotic cells

significantly correlated with inferior outcome, thereby providing a functional

interpretation for the prognostic implications of BcR structure in CLL.

The critical role of the B-cell receptor (BcR) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

(CLL) is underscored by the biased immunoglobulin heavy variable (IGHV) gene

repertoire and the categorization of patients into subtypes with markedly

different prognosis on the basis of IGHV gene mutational status.2 However, the

most compelling immunogenetic piece of evidence is the fact that almost 30% of

CLL patients share BcRs with restricted, quasi-identical IG sequences.3 This

might justifiably be taken as a convincing hint of restriction also in terms of

the antigens selecting CLL progenitors. Elucidation of the identity of the

respective antigens combined with knowledge about the actual structure of CLL

BcRs should aid in understanding the functional interplay between CLL cells and

the (micro)environment, eventually paving the way to the design of rational,

individualized treatment.4

For full article see

http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/cgi/content/full/115/19/3855?ct=ct

or http://bit.ly/aS5xO5