Auto-Immune Origin of B Cells from HCV-Associated Lymphoma

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a well-established risk factor for the development of B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL). Two main pathways have been proposed to explain the role of the virus in lymphomagenesis: 1) transformation of B cells either directly by oncogenic viral proteins, or by a hit-and-run mechanism inducing a mutator phenotype, and 2) chronic antigenic stimulation through the B cell receptor (BcR) in conjunction to the binding of the viral E2 protein to its receptor CD81. There are however conflicting data regarding whether the BcR of the lymphomatous cells are capable of directly recognizing viral proteins or, rather, they possess a rheumatoid factor (RF) activity, binding instead polyclonal immunoglobulin (IG) within immune complexes trapping the virus.