Clonal expansion and diversification of germinal center and memory B cell responses to booster immunization in primates

Effective vaccines elicit B cell clonal expansion in germinal centers (GCs) that produce memory B cells and antibody-secreting plasma cells. In mice, memory B cells rarely re-enter GCs upon boosting and instead differentiate into plasma cells. However, mouse circulating memory constitutes only 1%-2% of B cells, compared to 30%-50% in primates. We examine memory and GC B cell responses in rhesus macaques immunized and boosted ipsilaterally or contralaterally with an mRNA vaccine encoding the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein. The neutralizing activity of antibodies cloned from the memory compartment, as well as the size of the compartment, was independent of the site of boosting. We show that memory B cells enter and undergo iterative expansion in newly developing GCs when boosting is at a site distal to the site of priming. Thus, in primates, high-affinity memory B cells constitute a reservoir that actively participates in further development of immunity irrespective of the anatomical site of vaccine boosting.

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Publication Details

Journal
Cell Reports
Published
2025-08-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116142
Citations
1
Primary Topic
T-cell and B-cell Immunology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.80
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article

Clonal expansion and diversification of germinal center and memory B cell responses to booster immunization in primates

Lachlan P. Deimel, Michel C. Nussenzweig, Harald Hartweger, Gabriela S. Silva Santos et al.
1 citations
Cell Reports
T-cell and B-cell Immunology
0.80
article

Clonal expansion and diversification of germinal center and memory B cell responses to booster immunization in primates

Lachlan P. Deimel, Michel C. Nussenzweig, Harald Hartweger, Gabriela S. Silva Santos, Yoshiaki Nishimura, Paul D. Bieniasz, Malcolm A. Martin, Marie Canis, Thiago Y. Oliveira, Viren A. Baharani, Théodora Hatziioannou, Anna Gazumyan, Andrew J. MacLean, B. Hernández, Sadman Shawraz
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Effective vaccines elicit B cell clonal expansion in germinal centers (GCs) that produce memory B cells and antibody-secreting plasma cells. In mice, memory B cells rarely re-enter GCs upon boosting and instead differentiate into plasma cells. However, mouse circulating memory constitutes only 1%-2% of B cells, compared to 30%-50% in primates. We examine memory and GC B cell responses in rhesus macaques immunized and boosted ipsilaterally or contralaterally with an mRNA vaccine encoding the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein. The neutralizing activity of antibodies cloned from the memory compartment, as well as the size of the compartment, was independent of the site of boosting. We show that memory B cells enter and undergo iterative expansion in newly developing GCs when boosting is at a site distal to the site of priming. Thus, in primates, high-affinity memory B cells constitute a reservoir that actively participates in further development of immunity irrespective of the anatomical site of vaccine boosting.

Cell ReportsVol. 44(8)
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (US), Rockefeller University (US)
Good health and well-being
Openalex Percentile: Top 25%
T-cell and B-cell Immunology
0.80
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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