{"doi":"10.1016/j.jmb.2020.10.021","title":"B cells from Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Show Conserved CD39-Mediated Regulatory Function and increased CD39 Expression After Positive Response to Therapy","abstract":"Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by progressive joint destruction associated with increased pro-inflammatory mediators. In inflammatory microenvironments, exogenous ATP (eATP) is hydrolyzed to adenosine, which exerts immunosuppressive effects, by the consecutive action of the ectonucleotidases CD39 and CD73. Mature B cells constitutively express both ectonucleotidases, converting these cells to potential suppressors. Here, we assessed CD39 and CD73 expression on B cells from treated or untreated patients with RA. Neither the frequency of CD73+CD39+ and CD73-CD39+ B cell subsets nor the levels of CD73 and CD39 expression on B cells from untreated or treated RA patients showed significant changes in comparison to healthy controls (HC). CpG+IL-2-stimulated B cells from HC or untreated RA patients increased their CD39 expression, and suppressed CD4+ and CD8+ T cell proliferation and intracellular TNF-production. A CD39 inhibitor significantly restored proliferation and TNF-producing capacity in CD4+ T cells, but not in CD8+ T cells, from HC and untreated RA patients, indicating that B cells from untreated RA patients conserved CD39-mediated regulatory function. Good responder patients to therapy (R-RA) exhibited an increased CD39 but not CD73 expression on B cells after treatment, while most of the non-responder (NR) patients showed a reduction in ectoenzyme expression. The positive changes of CD39 expression on B cells exhibited a negative correlation with disease activity and rheumatoid factor levels. Our results suggest modulating the ectoenzymes/ADO pathway as a potential therapy target for improving the course of RA.","journal":"Journal of Molecular Biology","year":2020,"id":100257,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":29,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9615,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":80238,"name":"María Carolina Amezcua Vesely","orcid":"0000-0001-9631-1249","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":493192,"name":"Paola Ferrero","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":493193,"name":"Cristina Acosta","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":492386,"name":"Nicolás Eric Ponce","orcid":"0000-0002-7052-5086","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":492387,"name":"Sabrina Bossio","orcid":"0000-0002-6789-6118","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":493194,"name":"Eduardo Mussano","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":493195,"name":"Laura Onetti","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":493196,"name":"Ignacio Isaac Cadile","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":490461,"name":"Eva V. Acosta Rodríguez","orcid":"0000-0001-5871-2391","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":492388,"name":"Carolina L. Montes","orcid":"0000-0003-0494-1820","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":490460,"name":"Adriana Gruppi","orcid":"0000-0002-8034-9303","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":493191,"name":"Estefanía R. Zacca","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":49,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T22:38:35.493878Z","pmid":"33098857","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}