B regulatory cells in patients with autoimmune diseases: Pathogenic significance and therapeutic potential

Abstract

Regulatory B cells (Breg cells) emerge as critical immunoregulators in autoimmune disease as they inhibit T helper 1 (Th1) and T helper 17 (Th17) cells. Although there are several phenotypic B cell subsets with immunosuppressing functions, the best-characterized subset is the Interleukin (IL)-10-producing B cell subset. IL-10-producing Breg cells are reduced in several autoimmune diseases and restored during the disease remission. Furthermore, they exhibited an inverse correlation with Th1 and Th17 cells in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, insinuating possible therapeutic importance in human autoimmune diseases in vivo. Focusing on promising data such as that demonstrating that fusion of granulocyte monocyte-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) with IL-15 (GIFT15 fusokine) induces Breg cells and suppresses experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis may underline a new strategy of Breg cell expansion for B cell-based therapies for organ- and nonorgan specific human autoimmune diseases. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.