{"doi":"10.1172/jci.insight.136417","title":"Effects of B cell–activating factor on tumor immunity","abstract":"Immunotherapies that modulate T cell function have been firmly established as a pillar of cancer therapy, whereas the potential for B cells in the antitumor immune response is less established. B cell-activating factor (BAFF) is a B cell-activating cytokine belonging to the TNF ligand family that has been associated with autoimmunity, but little is known about its effects on cancer immunity. We find that BAFF upregulates multiple B cell costimulatory molecules; augments IL-12a expression, consistent with Be-1 lineage commitment; and enhances B cell antigen-presentation to CD4+ Th cells in vitro. In a syngeneic mouse model of melanoma, BAFF upregulates B cell CD40 and PD-L1 expression; it also modulates T cell function through increased T cell activation and TH1 polarization, enhanced expression of the proinflammatory leukocyte trafficking chemokine CCR6, and promotion of a memory phenotype, leading to enhanced antitumor immunity. Similarly, adjuvant BAFF promotes a memory phenotype of T cells in vaccine-draining lymph nodes and augments the antitumor efficacy of whole cell vaccines. BAFF also has distinct immunoregulatory functions, promoting the expansion of CD4+Foxp3+ Tregs in the spleen and tumor microenvironment (TME). Human melanoma data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) demonstrate that BAFF expression is positively associated with overall survival and a TH1/IFN-γ gene signature. These data support a potential role for BAFF signaling as a cancer immunotherapy.","journal":"JCI Insight","year":2020,"id":62082,"datarank":1.944299197329548,"base_score":4.02535169073515,"endowment":4.02535169073515,"self_citation_contribution":0.6038027536102726,"citation_network_contribution":1.3404964437192755,"self_endowment_contribution":0.6038027536102726,"citer_contribution":1.3404964437192755,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":55,"citer_count":52,"citers_with_citation_signal":41,"citers_with_endowment":41,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9505,"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":317428,"name":"Won Jin Ho","orcid":"0000-0003-2644-5086","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":328462,"name":"Aditya Mohan","orcid":"0000-0001-7614-9387","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":328463,"name":"Yajas Shah","orcid":"0000-0002-9692-4878","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":330122,"name":"Teena Vithayathil","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":317429,"name":"James M. Leatherman","orcid":"0000-0002-1721-2128","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":328464,"name":"Lauren Dennison","orcid":"0000-0002-5905-8704","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232571,"name":"Neeha Zaidi","orcid":"0000-0002-0094-0049","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":328465,"name":"Sudipto Ganguly","orcid":"0000-0002-2662-8897","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":330123,"name":"Skylar Woolman","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":328466,"name":"Kayla Cruz","orcid":"0000-0002-2823-9772","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":257978,"name":"Todd D. Armstrong","orcid":"0009-0003-8291-7524","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":7890,"name":"Elizabeth M. Jaffee","orcid":"0000-0003-3841-6549","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":277002,"name":"Mark Yarchoan","orcid":"0000-0003-4401-0748","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":54,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:10:11.612909Z","pmid":"32434989","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":[]}