Anastasia Iatrou

The Centre for Research and Technology Hellas

The B cell receptor immunoglobulin (BcR IG) serves as a distinctive molecular marker for each B cell clone, facilitating interactions with antigens that subsequently impact clonal behavior. BcR signaling is crucial for every aspect of B cell physiology, while it plays a significant role in pathological conditions involving B cells, such as B cell m...

Splenic small B-cell lymphomas encompass a diverse group of rare entities that originate in or significantly involve the spleen, typically accompanied by bone marrow and peripheral blood involvement. Despite significant advancements in understanding their biology, the role of microenvironmental signals in shaping clonal behavior and clinical outcom...

Primary splenic small B-cell malignancies are rare disorders with still understudied biology, mainly due to the paucity of relevant primary spleen samples. A particularly uncharacterized aspect concerns the interactions of the malignant cells with their microenvironment. Here we sought to address this knowledge gap through interrogating T cell subs...

Immunogenetic evidence implicates the B cell receptor immunoglobulin (BcR IG) in the natural history of splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL). Indeed, SMZL carries distinct features of somatic hypermutation (SHM) amongst cases utilizing particular IGHV genes in their BcR IG. Moreover, the BcR IG gene repertoire in SMZL is restricted, whereby ~30% o...

B cell receptor (BCR)-mediated signalling is central in the pathogenesis of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), and represents a target for pharmacological intervention. Notably, so far characterized CLL-derived BCRs are capable of triggering cell-autonomous intracellular signalling through homotypic interactions without requirement for exogenous...

The B cell receptor immunoglobulin (BcR IG) is a unique molecular identity for each B cell clone, underpinning interactions with foreign and (auto)antigens that eventually affect clonal behavior. BcR signaling is crucial for the homeostasis of B cells, affecting all aspects of their physiology including cell activation, proliferation, differentiati...

The cylindromatosis protein (CYLD) is a functional deubiquitinase that regulates critical signaling pathways, e.g. NF-κB and Wnt, thus modulating several cellular functions. CYLD acts as a tumor suppressor gene in solid tumors, and is also involved in the pathogenesis of hematological malignancies, including B cell lymphomas, in as yet unclear ways...

Subset #201 is a clinically indolent subgroup of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia defined by the expression of stereotyped, mutated IGHV4-34/IGLV1-44 BCR Ig. Subset #201 is characterized by recurrent somatic hypermutations (SHMs) that frequently lead to the creation and/or disruption of N-glycosylation sites within the Ig H and L chain va...

The term monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis (MBL) describes the presence of a clonal B cell population with a count of less than 5 × 10⁹/L and no symptoms or signs of disease. Based on the B cell count, MBL is further classified into 2 distinct subtypes: ‘low-count’ and ‘high-count’ MBL. High-count MBL shares a series of biological and clinical featur...

Almost one-third of all splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) cases express B cell receptor immunoglobulin (BcR IG) encoded by the IGHV1-2*04 gene. Such cases display a distinctive profile of genomic aberrations (e.g. higher incidence of NOTCH2 and KLF2 mutations) and a more aggressive clinical course compared to SMZL cases utilizing other IGHV gen...

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic poses an urgent need for the development of effective therapies for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: We first tested SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell (CοV-2-ST) immunity and expansion in unexposed donors, COVID-19 infected individuals (convalescent), asympto...

Splenic marginal-zone lymphoma (SMZL) ontogeny and evolution is a complex process, involving, amongst others, (super)antigenic stimulation, molecular deregulation of genes involved in the physiological differentiation of splenic marginal zone B cells (e.g. NOTCH2 and KLF2), and epigenetic alterations leading to silencing of different tumor suppress...

The IGHV4-34 gene is intrinsically autoreactive due to carrying a germline(GL)-encoded (super)antigenic motif binding various self (and exogenous) antigens, while it is one of the few IGHV genes that contain a GL-encoded N-glycosylation (N-glyc) site. IGHV4-34 is overrepresented in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), particularly in cases expressin...