ABSTRACT
The non-involved, healthy-looking skin of psoriatic patients displays inherent characteristics that make it prone to develop typical psoriatic symptoms. Our primary aim was to identify genes and proteins that are differentially regulated in the non-involved psoriatic and the normal epidermis, and to discover regulatory networks responsible for these differences. A cDNA microarray experiment was performed to compare the gene expression profiles of 4 healthy and 4 psoriatic non-involved epidermis samples in response to T-cell lymphokine induction in organotypic cultures. We identified 61 annotated genes and another 11 expressed transcripts that were differentially regulated in the psoriatic tissues. Bioinformatics analysis suggested that the regulation of cell morphology, development and cell death is abnormal, and that the metabolism of small molecules and lipids is differentially regulated in psoriatic epidermis. Our results indicate that one of the early steps of psoriasis pathogenesis may be the abnormal regulation of IL-23A and IL-1B genes in psoriatic keratinocytes.
Subject(s)
Epidermis/immunology , Gene Regulatory Networks , Inflammation Mediators , Interleukin-1beta/genetics , Interleukin-23 Subunit p19/genetics , Keratinocytes/immunology , Psoriasis/genetics , Biopsy , Case-Control Studies , Computational Biology , Epidermis/drug effects , Gene Expression Profiling/methods , Gene Expression Regulation , Genetic Markers , Genetic Predisposition to Disease , Humans , Interferon-gamma/pharmacology , Keratinocytes/drug effects , Male , Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis , Psoriasis/immunology , RNA, Messenger/metabolism , Tissue Culture TechniquesABSTRACT
Allergen-specific immunotherapy (ASIT) the only disease-modifying treatment for IgE-mediated allergies is characterized with long treatment duration and high risk of side effects. We investigated the safety, immunogenicity and efficacy of a novel ASIT, called DermAll, in an experimental allergic rhinitis model. We designed and characterized DermAll-OVA, a synthetic plasmid pDNA/PEIm nanomedicine expressing ovalbumin (OVA) as model allergen. DermAll-OVA was administered topically with DermaPrep device to target Langerhans cells. To detect the clinical efficacy of DermAll ASIT we quantified the nasal symptoms and characterized the immunomodulatory activity of DermAll ASIT by measuring cytokine secretion after OVA-stimulation of splenocytes and antibodies from the sera. In allergic mice DermAll ASIT was as safe as Placebo, balanced the allergen-induced pathogenic TH2-polarized immune responses, and decreased the clinical symptoms by 52% [32%, 70%] compared to Placebo. These studies suggest that DermAll ASIT is safe and should significantly improve the immunopathology and symptoms of allergic diseases. FROM THE CLINICAL EDITOR: A novel allergen-specific immunotherapy for IgE-mediated allergies is presented in this paper, using an experimental allergic rhinitis model and a synthetic plasmid pDNA/PEIm nanomedicine expressing ovalbumin as model allergen. Over 50% reduction of symptoms was found as the immune system's balance was favorably altered toward more TH2-polarized immune responses.
