Dynamics of the Human Antibody Repertoire following B-cell Depletion in Systemic Sclerosis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Systemic sclerosis with pulmonary arterial hypertension (SSc-PAH) is a debilitating and frequently lethal disease of unknown cause lacking effective treatment options. Lymphocyte anomalies and autoantibodies observed in systemic sclerosis have suggested an autoimmune character. Here we study the clonal structure of the B-cell repertoire in SSc-PAH using immunoglobulin heavy-chain sequencing before and after B-cell depletion. We found SSc-PAH to be associated with anomalies in B-cell development, namely altered VDJ rearrangement frequencies (reduced IGHV2-5 segment usage) and an increased somatic mutation-fixation probability in expanded B-cell lineages. SSc-PAH was also characterized by anomalies in B-cell homeostasis, namely an expanded IgD + proportion with reduced mutation loads and an expanded proportion of highly antibody-secreting cells. Disease signatures pertaining to IGHV2-5 segment usage, IgD proportions and mutation loads were temporarily reversed after B-cell depletion. Analyzing the time course of B-cell depletion, we find that the kinetics of naïve replenishment are predictable from baseline measurements alone, that release of plasma cells into the periphery can precede naïve replenishment and that modes of B-cell receptor diversity are highly elastic. Our findings shed light on the humoral immune basis of SSc-PAH and provide insights into the effect of B-cell depletion on the antibody repertoire. Abbreviations SSc-PAH Systemic sclerosis with pulmonary arterial hypertension IGH immunoglobulin heavy-chain BCR B-cell receptor CDR3 complementarity-determining region 3 Ig immunoglobulin AA amino acid
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".