Project description:Pityriasis rubra pilaris (PRP) is a papulosquamous disorder phenotypically related to psoriasis. The disease has been occasionally shown to be inherited in an autosomal-dominant fashion. To identify the genetic cause of familial PRP, we ascertained four unrelated families affected by autosomal-dominant PRP. We initially mapped PRP to 17q25.3, a region overlapping with psoriasis susceptibility locus 2 (PSORS2 [MIM 602723]). Using a combination of linkage analysis followed by targeted whole-exome sequencing and candidate-gene screening, we identified three different heterozygous mutations in CARD14, which encodes caspase recruitment domain family, member 14. CARD14 was found to be specifically expressed in the skin. CARD14 is a known activator of nuclear factor kappa B signaling, which has been implicated in inflammatory disorders. Accordingly, CARD14 levels were increased, and p65 was found to be activated in the skin of PRP-affected individuals. The present data demonstrate that autosomal-dominant PRP is allelic to familial psoriasis, which was recently shown to also be caused by mutations in CARD14.
Project description:ImportancePityriasis rubra pilaris is a rare and disabling cutaneous disease that is frequently recalcitrant to conventional therapies and appears to involve interleukin (IL)-17 overexpression.ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical response and safety of ixekizumab in treating pityriasis rubra pilaris.Design, setting, and participantsSingle-arm, investigator-initiated trial conducted in adult patients with moderate to severe pityriasis rubra pilaris at a single-center academic university from June 2018 to January 2020. A total of 41 patients were screened, 12 were enrolled, and 11 completed the full duration of therapy. A referred, consecutive sample was used during participant selection. The treatment period and primary outcome occurred over 24 weeks with additional patient follow-up through 36 weeks.InterventionSubcutaneous administration of ixekizumab, a humanized IgG4 antibody that binds IL-17A, at the US Food and Drug Administration-approved dosing schedule for treatment of psoriasis for 24 weeks.Main outcomes and measuresThe primary outcome was the mean change in Psoriasis Area and Severity Index at 24 weeks. Secondary outcomes included change in affected body surface area, quality of life, induction of sustained remission, and association of improvement with CARD14 genetic variations and cutaneous cytokine expression.ResultsA total of 12 white patients (mean [SD] age, 49.8 [15.1] years; 8 male [67%]) were enrolled between June 2018 and April 2019, with 11 completing the full course of intervention. The mean (SEM) improvements in Psoriasis Area and Severity Index, affected body surface area, and Dermatology Life Quality Index were 15.2 (2.1) (P < .0001), 29.8% (9.3%) (P = .009), and 9.5 (2.5) (P = .004), respectively. The 4 participants with the most improvement in Psoriasis Area and Severity Index at week 24 stayed in remission at week 36 (defined as lack of increase in Psoriasis Area and Severity Index from week 24 through week 36), off therapy. Relative dermal IL-17A expression decreased by a 1.9 log-fold change. No participants had known pathogenic CARD14 variations. There were no serious adverse events.Conclusions and relevanceIn this single-armed trial, ixekizumab was associated with reduced clinical signs and symptoms of pityriasis rubra pilaris in a subset of patients, including those in whom other systemic therapies have failed.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03485976.
Project description:IMPORTANCE:Pityriasis rubra pilaris (PRP) is a rare papulosquamous disorder with limited epidemiologic and clinicopathologic data. Little information is available on long-term outcomes, comorbidities, and treatment efficacy. OBJECTIVE:To evaluate objective and subjective disease experience metrics from the perspectives of patients and clinicians. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:One hundred patients with a putative diagnosis of PRP and who elected to participate completed a comprehensive survey, followed by acquisition of their medical records, including histopathology slides and reports. The data were analyzed separately from the health care clinician and the patient perspectives. Two academic dermatologists examined clinical notes, pathology reports, and photographs, confirming diagnoses via predetermined criteria. Patients were categorized into 4 levels of diagnostic certainty to allow stratification of the findings for subgroup analysis. Patients with a diagnosis of PRP were solicited through patient support organization websites. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:Clinical outcomes, unexpected association of comorbidities, and efficacy (or lack of it) of various treatment modalities. RESULTS:Among the 100 patients, 50 were diagnosed as having classic, unquestionable PRP. The patients were a median of 61 years old (range, 5-87 years), and 46% were female. Fifty were categorized as level 1 diagnostic certainty, 15 as level 2, 30 as level 3, and 5 as level 4. Of the level 1 patients, 13 (26%) were correctly diagnosed at initial presentation; diagnosis was delayed, on average, by 29 months (range, 0.25-288 months; median, 2 months); and 27 (54%) having undergone 2 or more biopsies. At enrollment, PRP symptoms had persisted in 36 patients (72%) for an average of 58 months (range, 1-300 months; median, 30 months). Thirty-one patients (62%) had comorbidities, including hypothyroidism (20%). Nearly all patients (98%) received some form of therapy. Patients cited topical emollients, corticosteroids, and salicylic acid along with oral retinoids, methotrexate, and tumor necrosis factor inhibitors as most helpful. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:Pityriasis rubra pilaris remains a challenging diagnosis without established and specific treatment. Our data highlight new potential avenues for research with therapeutic perspective.
Project description:Altered epidermal differentiation along with increased keratinocyte proliferation is a characteristic feature of psoriasis and pityriasis rubra pilaris (PRP). However, despite this large degree of overlapping clinical and histologic features, the molecular signatures these skin disorders share are unknown. Using global transcriptomic profiling, we demonstrate that plaque psoriasis and PRP skin lesions have high overlap, with all differentially expressed genes in PRP relative to normal skin having complete overlap with those in psoriasis. The major common pathway shared between psoriasis and PRP involves the phospholipases PLA2G2F, PLA2G4D, and PLA2G4E, which were found to be primarily expressed in the epidermis. Gene silencing each of the 3 PLA2s led to reduction in immune responses and epidermal thickness both in vitro and in vivo in a mouse model of psoriasis, establishing their proinflammatory roles. Lipidomic analyses demonstrated that PLA2s affect mobilization of a phospholipid-eicosanoid pool, which is altered in psoriatic lesions and functions to promote immune responses in keratinocytes. Taken together, our results highlight the important role of PLA2s as regulators of epidermal barrier homeostasis and inflammation, identify PLA2s as a shared pathogenic mechanism between PRP and psoriasis, and as potential therapeutic targets for both diseases.
Project description:Tyrosine kinase inhibitors have revolutionized the chemotherapy arena as targeted therapies for a multitude of malignancies. They are more selective than conventional chemotherapy, and often elicit fewer systemic adverse events, however toxicities still exist. Cutaneous toxicities are common and their management presents a novel challenge to physicians and patients. Ponatinib is a third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor increasingly reported to cause cutaneous eruption. A 50-year-old woman with a history of chronic myelogenous leukemia presented with a 4-month history of worsening atrophic and ichthyosiform pink plaques involving the axillae, thighs and abdomen; red patches were also observed on the cheeks and forehead. She was started on the third-generation, ponatinib, 5 months earlier because of disease refractory to previous therapies including interferon, imatinib, dasatinib and bosutinib. A skin biopsy revealed perifollicular fibrosis, alternating orthokeratosis and parakeratosis, and a sparse perivascular lymphocytic infiltrate consistent with a pityriasis rubra pilaris-like reaction. Topical tretinoin 0.025% cream was initiated, resulting in resolution within 3 weeks without discontinuation of ponatinib. A review of previous reports identified significant similarities among the ponatinib-induced drug reactions. Here, we highlight not only that cutaneous eruptions occur on ponatinib therapy, but that the dermatologic manifestations are characteristic and unique, and benefit from retinoid therapy, without requiring interruption of vital chemotherapy.
Project description:Pityriasis rubra pilaris (PRP) is a rare papulosquamous skin disorder, which is phenotypically related to psoriasis. Some familial PRP cases show autosomal dominant inheritance due to CARD14 mutations leading to increased nuclear factor ?B (NF?B) activation. Moreover, CARD14 polymorphisms have also been implicated in sporadic PRP. A Hungarian PRP patient with childhood onset disease showing worsening of the symptoms in adulthood with poor therapeutic response underwent genetic screening for the CARD14 gene, revealing four genetic variants (rs117918077, rs2066964, rs28674001, and rs11652075). To confirm that the identified genetic variants would result in altered NF?B activity in the patient, functional studies were carried out. Immunofluorescent staining of the NF?B p65 subunit and NF?B-luciferase reporter assay demonstrated significantly increased NF?B activity in skin samples and keratinocytes from the PRP patient compared to healthy samples. Characterization of the cytokine profile of the keratinocytes and peripheral blood mononuclear cells demonstrated that the higher NF?B activation in PRP cells induces enhanced responses to inflammatory stimuli. These higher inflammatory reactions could not be explained solely by the observed CARD14 or other inflammation-related gene variants (determined by whole exome sequencing). Thus our study indicates the importance of investigations on other genetic factors related to PRP and their further functional characterization to bring us closer to the understanding of cellular and molecular background of disease pathogenesis.
Project description:Pityriasis rubra pilaris (PRP) is a rare inflammatory skin disorder associated with significant patient morbidity. To further characterize the molecular landscape of PRP, we conducted a transcriptomic analysis of epidermis and dermis collected from patients with moderate-to-severe PRP compared to matched healthy controls, on no systemic therapy and then following 24 weeks of treatment with the IL17A inhibitor, ixekizumab. Patients with PRP not only experienced clinical improvements, but also correction of their cutaneous transcriptome dysregulation after therapy. Moreover, those who has >50% improvement in PASI score after treatment demonstrated distinct transcriptomic profiles when compared to those who failed to respond, despite the lack of a discernable phenotypic difference. Pathway enrichment was strongest among DEGs belonging to inflammatory processes for patients with PRP – in particular, enrichment of the Th17 immune response was seen both prior to and following treatment with IL17A inhibition. Positive regulation of natural killer cell chemotaxis was also seen pre- and post-treatment, however, the pathway’s odds of enrichment decreased following treatment in both epidermis and dermis. Additionally, negative regulation of IL-12 production was highly enriched following therapy, suggesting decreased activity of the Th1 axis. Several individual genes of interest similarly displayed marked differential expression by response status. In parallel with their overall normalization in gene expression, responders had a greater normalization toward healthy control skin than non-responders in the Th17 family genes IL17C, IL23A, CCL20, as well as IL36A and IL36F (implicated in pustular psoriasis), Phospholipase A2 group IVD, and the antimicrobial protein S100A7, all of which remained elevated in non-responders. Intriguingly, responders had higher baseline levels of IL17A and IL17F than non-responders. Whereas dermal IL17A/F levels improved in responders, epidermal expression remained high despite the clinical response to IL17A inhibition. In contrast, non-responder IL17A/F epidermal levels normalized and dermal levels were significantly suppressed compared to healthy controls, despite the lack of clinical improvement. This suggests alternative pathways such as specific targeting of IL17C or IL36 may be preferred in some subsets of PRP.
Project description:Importance: There is no FDA-approved treatment for pityriasis rubra pilaris and it is common for patients to fail several systemic options. Involvement of IL-23 pathway suggests a potential therapeutic target. Objective: To determine whether guselkumab, an IL-23p19 inhibitor, provides clinical improvement for subjects with PRP. Design: Single-arm, investigator-initiated trial from October, 2019 to August, 2022. Primary outcome was observed at 24 weeks, and additional patient follow-up occurred at 36 weeks. Participants: 14 adult subjects with moderate-to-severe pityriasis rubra pilaris were enrolled; 12 completed the trial. Age- and sex-matched healthy controls provided skin and blood for proteomic and transcriptomic studies. Intervention: Guselkumab is a humanized IgG1 lambda antibody that selectively binds and inhibits the p19 subunit of interleukin-23. Subcutaneous injections were performed at the FDA-approved dosing schedule for psoriasis over a 24-week period. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was mean change in psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) at week 24. Secondary outcomes included improvement in body surface area, quality of life, time to improvement, sustained remission at 36 weeks, and correlation to germline mutations and cytokine expression. Results: An intention-to-treat analysis was performed for our cohort of ten males and six females, with a median age of 59.5 years. The mean improvement in psoriasis area and severity index, body surface area, and dermatology life quality index (DLQI) were 18.9 ± 12.5 (p<0.001), 40.5 ± 36.5 (p=0.003), and 12.2 ± 7.8 (p<0.001), respectively. 11 subjects showed sustained remission off therapy, evidenced by decreased PASI scores between week-24 and week-36. No subjects had CARD14 gene variations. There was one serious adverse event, unrelated to study drug. Proteomics and gene expression profiles improved with clinical improvement. Conclusion and Relevance: Guselkumab appears to be efficacious in the treatment of refractory PRP.