Lysophospholipids have emerged as biologically important chemoattractants capable of directing lymphocyte development, trafficking and localization. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a major lysophospholipid found systemically and whose levels are elevated in certain pathological settings such as cancer and infections. Here, we demonstrate that BCR signal transduction by mature murine B cells is inhibited upon LPA engagement of the LPA5 (GPR92) receptor via a Gα12/13 – Arhgef1 pathway. The inhibition of BCR signaling by LPA5 manifests by impaired intracellular calcium store release and most likely by interfering with inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor activity. We further show that LPA5 also limits antigen-specific induction of CD69 and CD86 expression and that LPA5-deficient B cells display enhanced antibody responses. Thus, these data show that LPA5 negatively regulates BCR signaling, B cell activation and immune response. Our findings extend the influence of lysophospholipids on immune function and suggest that alterations in LPA levels likely influence adaptive humoral immunity.

Peripheral tolerance is essential for silencing weakly autoreactive B cells that have escaped central tolerance, but it is unclear why these potentially pathogenic B cells are retained rather than being eliminated entirely. Release from peripheral tolerance restraint can occur under certain circumstances (i.e., strong TLR stimulus), that are present during infection. In this regard, we hypothesized that autoreactive B cells could function as a reserve population that can be activated to contribute to the humoral immune response, particularly with pathogens, such as HIV-1, that exploit immune tolerance to avoid host defense. In this study, we identify a population of autoreactive B cells with the potential to neutralize HIV-1 and experimentally release them from the functional restrictions of peripheral tolerance. We have previously identified murine monoclonal antibodies that displayed autoreactivity against histone H2A and neutralized HIV-1 in vitro. Here, we identify additional H2A-reactive IgM monoclonal antibodies and demonstrate that they are both autoreactive and polyreactive with self and foreign antigens and are able to neutralize multiple clades of tier 2 HIV-1. Flow cytometric analysis of H2A-reactive B cells in naïve wildtype mice revealed that these B cells are present in peripheral B cell populations and we further document that murine H2A-reactive B cells are restrained by peripheral tolerance mechanisms. Specifically, we show endogenous H2A-reactive B cells display increased expression of the inhibitory mediators CD5 and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) phosphatase and fail to mobilize calcium upon immunoreceptor stimulation; all characterized markers of anergy. Moreover, we show that toll-like receptor stimulation or provision of CD4 T cell help induces the in vitro production of H2A-reactive antibodies, breaking tolerance. Thus, we have identified a novel poly/autoreactive B cell population that has the potential to neutralize HIV-1 but is silenced by immune tolerance.