{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T22:36:40Z","timestamp":1789771000146,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,23]],"date-time":"2023-03-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1679529600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100006545","name":"National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["U54MD007600 , S21MD001830"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U54MD007600 , S21MD001830"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100006545","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Oncol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Among the different immune cells present within tumors, B cells also infiltrate human papillomavirus-positive (HPV+) oropharyngeal tumors. However, the role of B cells during programmed death-1 (PD-1) blockade in HPV+ oropharyngeal cancer needs to be better defined. By using the preclinical mouse model for HPV+ oropharyngeal cancer (named mEER), we characterized B cells within tumors and determined their functional role <jats:italic>in vivo<\/jats:italic> during PD-1 blockade. We determined that treatment na\u00efve tongue-implanted tumors, which we have previously demonstrated to be sensitive to PD-1 blockade, contained high infiltration of CD8+ T cells and low infiltration of B cells whereas flank-implanted tumors, which are resistant to PD-1 blockade, contain a higher frequency of B cells compared to T cells. Moreover, B cell-deficient mice (\u00b5Mt) and B cell-depleted mice showed a slower tumor growth rate compared to wild-type (WT) mice, and B cell deficiency increased CD8+ T cell infiltration in tumors. When we compared tongue tumor-bearing mice treated with anti-PD-1, we observed that tumors that responded to the therapy contained more T cells and B cells than the ones that did not respond. However, \u00b5Mt mice treated with PD-1 blockade showed similar tumor growth rates to WT mice. Our data suggest that in untreated mice, B cells have a more pro-tumorigenic phenotype potentially affecting T cell infiltration in the tumors. In contrast, B cells are dispensable for PD-1 blockade efficacy. Mechanistic studies are needed to identify novel targets to promote the anti-tumorigenic function and\/or suppress the immunosuppressive function of B cells in HPV+ oropharyngeal cancer.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fonc.2023.1145724","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,23]],"date-time":"2023-03-23T06:58:21Z","timestamp":1679554701000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["B cells as modulators of HPV+ oropharyngeal cancer in a preclinical model"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Jorge R.","family":"Gal\u00e1n-Ort\u00edz","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kamila A.","family":"Andino del Valle","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abelardo 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