Transcriptional regulatory networks of psoriasis

Psoriasis is a common inflammatory skin disease with complex etiology and chronic progression. To provide novel insights into the molecular mechanisms of regulation of the disease we performed RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis of fourteen pairs of skin samples collected from psoriatic patients with consequent pathway analysis and identification of the main transcriptional regulators of psoriasis-associated pathways. In order to identify the most important regulators of the disease, we combined the results obtained with MetaCore Interactome enrichment tool and cisExpress algorithm and compared them to regulatory psoriasis response elements found in literature. Comparative approach allowed us to identify 42 core transcriptional regulators of the disease associated with inflammation (NFkB, IRF9, JUN, FOS, SRF), activity of T-cells in the psoriatic lesions (STAT6, FOXP3, NFATC2, GATA3, TCF7, RUNX1, etc.), hyper-proliferation and migration of keratinocytes (JUN, FOS, NFIB, TFAP2A, TFAP2C), and with lipid metabolism (TFAP2, RARA, VDR). We also identified 66 transcription factors not previously associated with psoriasis. Using MetaCore pathway maps we illustrated and described the molecular basis of psoriatic skin lesions. Overall design: Skin mRNA profiles for samples pairs taken from 14 psoriasis patients, LS- sample from psoriatic lesional skin, NL- sample from psoriatic nonlesional skin