{"doi":"10.1172/jci142088","title":"B cells, antibody-secreting cells, and virus-specific antibodies respond to herpes simplex virus 2 reactivation in skin","abstract":"Tissue-based T cells are important effectors in the prevention and control of mucosal viral infections; less is known about tissue-based B cells. We demonstrate that B cells and antibody-secreting cells (ASCs) are present in inflammatory infiltrates in skin biopsy specimens from study participants during symptomatic herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) reactivation and early healing. Both CD20+ B cells, most of which are antigen inexperienced based on their coexpression of IgD, and ASCs - characterized by dense IgG RNA expression in combination with CD138, IRF4, and Blimp-1 RNA - were found to colocalize with T cells. ASCs clustered with CD4+ T cells, suggesting the potential for crosstalk. HSV-2-specific antibodies to virus surface antigens were also present in tissue and increased in concentration during HSV-2 reactivation and healing, unlike in serum, where concentrations remained static over time. B cells, ASCs, and HSV-specific antibody were rarely detected in biopsies of unaffected skin. Evaluation of samples from serial biopsies demonstrated that B cells and ASCs followed a more migratory than resident pattern of infiltration in HSV-affected genital skin, in contrast to T cells. Together, these observations suggest the presence of distinct phenotypes of B cells in HSV-affected tissue; dissecting their role in reactivation may reveal new therapeutic avenues to control these infections.","journal":"Journal of Clinical Investigation","year":2021,"id":172423,"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":25,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9586,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":582718,"name":"Anton M. Sholukh","orcid":"0000-0003-0498-9162","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":582719,"name":"RuthMabel Boytz","orcid":"0000-0002-8524-8376","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":583046,"name":"Savanna S. Carmack","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":582720,"name":"Alexis Klock","orcid":"0000-0002-5252-5920","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":582721,"name":"Khamsone Phasouk","orcid":"0000-0003-1738-1383","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":695745,"name":"Danica Shao","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":583047,"name":"Raabya Rossenkhan","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":472908,"name":"Paul T. Edlefsen","orcid":"0000-0002-8393-8103","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":582722,"name":"Tao Peng","orcid":"0000-0002-5692-4910","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":473787,"name":"Christine Johnston","orcid":"0000-0002-3073-0843","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":294671,"name":"Anna Wald","orcid":"0000-0003-3486-6438","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":672220,"name":"Jia Zhu","orcid":"0000-0002-8676-5105","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":96348,"name":"Lawrence Corey","orcid":"0000-0002-2179-2436","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":582717,"name":"Emily S. Ford","orcid":"0000-0001-7358-798X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":70,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:46:41.424716Z","pmid":"33784252","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":[]}