Objective: Transcriptomic characteristics and prognosis of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) and infiltrating B cells in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remain unclear.Here, NPC transcriptomic data and clinical samples were used to investigate the role of infiltrating B cells and TLS in NPC.Methods: We investigated the gene expression and infiltrating immune cells of NPC patients and further investigated the clinical relevance of B cell and TLS signatures.Transcriptional features of infiltrating B cell subsets were revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis.Immunohistochemical (IHC) and HE staining were performed to validate the clinical relevance of infiltrating B cells and TLS in NPC samples.
Results: 27 differentially click here expressed immune-related genes (IRGs) associated with prognosis were identified, including B cell marker genes CD19 and CD79B.The higher B cells and TLS signature scores were associated with better outcomes and princess polly dresses long sleeve early pathological staging in 88 NPC patients.ScRNA-seq identified five distinct B cell subsets in NPC, including the BC-4 cluster associated with poor outcomes and the BC-0 cluster associated with better outcomes.EBV infection was positively associated with the formation of TLS.Furthermore, experimental results showed that the infiltration of B cells in NPC tissues was higher than that of normal tissues, and the density of TLS in an early stage of NPC was higher than that in advanced-stage TLS.
Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate the functional importance of distinct B cell subsets in the prognosis of NPC.Additionally, we confirmed that B cells and TLS may serve as prognostic biomarkers of survival for NPC patients.