Transcriptional Profiling of Psoriasis Using RNA-seq Reveals Previously Unidentified Differentially Expressed genes. Homo sapiens

The transcriptomic profiling of psoriasis has led to an increased understanding of disease pathogenesis. Although microarray technologies have been instrumental in this regard, it is clear that these tools detect an incomplete set of DEGs. RNA-seq can be used to supplement these prior technologies. Here, the use of RNAseq methods substantially increased the number of psoriasis-related DEGs. Furthermore, DEGs that were uniquely identified by RNA-seq, but not in other published microarray studies, further supported the role of IL-17 and tumor necrosis factor-a synergy in psoriasis. Examination of one of these factors at the protein level confirmed that RNA-seq is a powerful tool that can be used to identify molecular factors present in psoriasis lesions, and may be useful in the identification of therapeutic targets that to our knowledge have not been reported previously. Further studies are in progress to determine the biological significance of DEGs uniquely discovered by RNA-seq. Overall design: To define the transcriptomic profile of psoriatic skin, three pairs of lesional and nonlesional skin biopsy specimens were taken from patients with untreated moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.银屑病的转录组谱分析（transcriptomic profiling）已显著提升了学界对该病发病机制的认知。尽管基因芯片技术（microarray technologies）在该领域发挥了关键作用，但这类工具仅能检测到不完整的差异表达基因（Differentially Expressed Genes, DEGs）集合。RNA测序（RNA-seq）可作为这类既往技术的补充手段。本研究中，采用RNA测序方法显著增加了银屑病相关差异表达基因的检出数量。此外，仅通过RNA测序检出、未在其他已发表的基因芯片研究中被发现的差异表达基因，进一步佐证了白细胞介素17（IL-17）与肿瘤坏死因子α（tumor necrosis factor-α）的协同作用在银屑病发病中的核心地位。对其中一种因子开展蛋白质水平验证的实验结果证实，RNA测序是一款高效的分析工具，可用于识别银屑病皮损中的分子标志物，且有望用于发现目前尚未见报道的治疗靶标。当前已有进一步研究正在推进，以明确仅通过RNA测序发现的差异表达基因的生物学意义。实验整体设计：为明确银屑病皮肤的转录组谱特征，本研究从未接受治疗的中重度斑块状银屑病患者体内采集了三对皮损皮肤与非皮损皮肤活检标本。