- Greenfield, Ariele L;
- Dandekar, Ravi;
- Ramesh, Akshaya;
- Eggers, Erica L;
- Wu, Hao;
- Laurent, Sarah;
- Harkin, William;
- Pierson, Natalie S;
- Weber, Martin S;
- Henry, Roland G;
- Bischof, Antje;
- Cree, Bruce Ac;
- Hauser, Stephen L;
- Wilson, Michael R;
- von Büdingen, H-Christian
B cells are key contributors to chronic autoimmune pathology in multiple sclerosis (MS). Clonally related B cells exist in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), meninges, and CNS parenchyma of MS patients. We sought to investigate the presence of clonally related B cells over time by performing Ig heavy chain variable region repertoire sequencing on B cells from longitudinally collected blood and CSF samples of MS patients (n = 10). All patients were untreated at the time of the initial sampling; the majority (n = 7) were treated with immune-modulating therapies 1.2 (±0.3 SD) years later during the second sampling. We found clonal persistence of B cells in the CSF of 5 patients; these B cells were frequently Ig class-switched and CD27+. Specific blood B cell subsets appear to provide input into CNS repertoires over time. We demonstrate complex patterns of clonal B cell persistence in CSF and blood, even in patients on immune-modulating therapy. Our findings support the concept that peripheral B cell activation and CNS-compartmentalized immune mechanisms can in part be therapy resistant.