INTRODUCTION Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is considered a T cell driven autoimmune disease, therefore, the ability of B cell depleting biologics, e.g., anti-CD20 antibodies, to alleviate RA is unclear. This study examined the proportions of IL-17-secreting lymphocytes in the blood of healthy subjects and RA patients and determined if Th17 cells belong to a CD20+ subset of T cells. METHODS Fluore...

Immunophenotypic classification of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has well-recognized prognostic implications. The significance of CD20 expression has been evaluated in childhood precursor B-lineage ALL with conflicting results. We retrospectively analyzed the influence of CD20 expression on outcome in 253 adults with de novo precursor B-lineage ALL treated with either conventional (VAD/CVA...

Rituximab is routinely used for the treatment of neoplasia, although the mechanism of action remains uncertain. In the current study, CD20-induced apoptosis was investigated with a panel of anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies (mAb) in a wide range of cell lines. A hierarchy of mAb activity was apparent, with the B1 mAb generally the most potent. Apoptosis through CD20 was dependent on the nature of...

Despite the demonstrated clinical efficacy of CD20 monoclonal antibody (mAb) for lymphoma therapy, the in vivo mechanisms of tumor depletion remain controversial and variable. To identify the molecular mechanisms responsible for lymphoma killing by CD20 mAb in a homologous system amenable to mechanistic studies and genetic manipulation, a mouse lymphoma model was developed using primary tumor c...

We report the first case of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) of the stomach displaying CD20-negative relapse after rituximab-containing treatment and the re-appearance of CD20 expression at the second failure. The loss of CD20 expression in B-cell lymphomas relapsing after rituximab is a well-known phenomenon, but its actual impact in DLBCL is difficult to estimate. This paradigmatic case ...

The single most commonly used marker to identify B-cell lymphomas is CD20. Certain types of B-lineage lymphomas are characteristically negative for CD20, however. These include plasmablastic lymphoma, HHV8+ primary effusion lymphoma (and its extracavitary or solid variant), B lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia and ALK+ diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. On encountering one of these high grade lymphoma...

BACKGROUND In our recent study, we determined the cut-off value of CD20 expression at the level of 25, 000 molecules of equivalent soluble fluorochrome (MESF) to be the predictor of response to rituximab containing treatment in patients with B-cell lymphomas. In 17.5% of patients, who had the level of CD20 expression below the cut-off value, the response to rituximab containing treatment was si...

Studies using T-cell receptor (TCR) or chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) transduced T-cells have shown the effectiveness of adoptive immunotherapy to treat different malignancies. The efficacy and safety of such interventions greatly depends on good target selection to prevent ontarget toxicity. Furthermore, the broad application of TCR-based adoptive immunotherapy is hampered by a lack of an eff...

B lymphocytes are an important cell population of the immune system. However, until recently it was not possible to transduce resting B lymphocytes with retro- or lentiviral vectors, making them unsusceptible for genetic manipulations by these vectors. Lately, we demonstrated that lentiviral vectors pseudotyped with modified measles virus (MV) glycoproteins hemagglutinin, responsible for recept...

CD20 is a B cell surface marker that is expressed in various stages in B lymphocytes and certain lymphomas. Clinical administration of CD20 antibody, such as rituximab, is used widely to treat human B-cell lymphomas and other diseases. However, CD20 antibody failed to treat systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE or lupus). The reason for the failure is currently unknown. Type I interferons (IFN) are...