Breaching B cell tolerance in the tumor microenvironment

The immune system employs complex tolerance mechanisms in order to avoid harmful autoimmunity, yet autoantibodies are frequently observed in cancer. In a paper in Cell, Mazor et al. report that autoantibodies produced by tumor-infiltrating B cells in human ovarian cancer frequently recognize the self-protein matrix metalloproteinase 14 (MMP14) through two distinct mechanisms of tolerance disruption. The immune system employs complex tolerance mechanisms in order to avoid harmful autoimmunity, yet autoantibodies are frequently observed in cancer. In a paper in Cell, Mazor et al. report that autoantibodies produced by tumor-infiltrating B cells in human ovarian cancer frequently recognize the self-protein matrix metalloproteinase 14 (MMP14) through two distinct mechanisms of tolerance disruption.