B-lymphocytes play major adaptive immune roles, producing antibody and driving T-cell responses. However, how immunometabolism networks support B-cell activation and differentiation in response to distinct receptor stimuli remains incompletely understood. To gain insights, we systematically investigated acute primary human B-cell transcriptional, translational and metabolomic responses to B-cell receptor (BCR), Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), CD40-ligand (CD40L), interleukin-4 (IL4) or combinations thereof. T-independent BCR/TLR9 co-stimulation, which drives malignant and autoimmune B-cell states highly induced the transaminase branched chain amino acid transaminase 1 (BCAT1), which localized to lysosomal membranes to support branched chain amino acid synthesis and mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) activation. BCAT1 inhibition blunted BCR/TLR9, but not CD40L/IL4-triggered B-cell proliferation, IL10 expression and BCR/TLR pathway-driven lymphoma xenograft outgrowth. These results provide a valuable resource, reveal receptor-mediated immunometabolism remodeling to support key B-cell phenotypes and identify BCAT1 as an activated B-cell therapeutic target.
Rui Guo, Yizhe Sun, Matthew Y. Lim, Hardik Shah, Joao A. Paulo, Rahaman A. Ahmed, Weixing Li, Yuchen Zhang, Haopeng Yang, Liang Wei Wang, Daniel Strebinger, Nicholas A. Smith, Meng Li, Merrin Man Long Leong, Michael Lutchenkov, Jin-Hua Liang, Zhixuan Li, Yin Wang, Rishi Puri, Ari Melnick, Michael R. Green, John M. Asara, Adonia E. Papathanassiu, Duane R. Wesemann, Steven P. Gygi, Vamsi K. Mootha, Benjamin E. Gewurz