Evaluation of tofacitinib in cutaneous sarcoidosis [bulk RNA-seq]

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem inflammatory disease and no molecularly targeted therapies exist. Here we evaluate the efficacy of tofacitinib (a JAK1/3 inhibitor) in an open-label trial of 10 patients with sarcoidosis and correlate clinical improvement with molecular parameters in blood and skin. Total RNA was extracted with Qiagen RNeasy Fibrous Tissue Mini kits (Qiagen cat# 74704) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Homogenization of the tissue was achieved using a rotor-homogenizer (PowerGen 125, ThermoFisher). RNA was submitted to the Yale Stem Cell Center and complementary DNA libraries were prepared and 100-base pair paired-end stranded sequencing was performed on an Illumina HiSeq 4000, also at Yale Stem Cell Center.