Highlights of IMMUNOLOGY2026™ - Invited Program Recordings-Journey to the undiscovere'd country of B cell memory

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Frances Lund’s lecture focused on how B cells do much more than make antibodies: they also secrete cytokines that shape immune responses to infection, allergy, and autoimmunity. Her lab showed that B cells can become distinct “effector” states depending on the signals they receive, especially interferon-gamma and T cell help. These BE1 cells, driven by type 1 inflammation, can promote antibody production and feed back to influence T cells.<br /><br />A major theme of the talk was the transcription factor T-bet. Lund presented evidence that T-bet marks and helps program effector-memory B cells, enabling rapid plasma cell differentiation and durable antibody responses after flu infection and in lupus-like autoimmunity. T-bet also supports maintenance of certain memory B cell subsets and is important in lung-resident memory responses.<br /><br />She then introduced IRF1 as another key regulator downstream of interferon-gamma. In lupus models, loss of B cell IRF1 reduced pathogenic autoantibodies, improved survival, and shifted B cells away from inflammatory effector programs toward more stem-like memory cells and regulatory, IL-10-producing plasma cells. Overall, the talk emphasized that interferon-gamma, T-bet, and IRF1 together control B cell fate, function, and disease-driving versus protective immune responses.

Keywords

B cells

cytokines

T-bet

IRF1

interferon-gamma

effector-memory B cells

autoimmunity

lupus