S100A12

Findings show that seborrheic dermatitis is a unique inflammatory skin disease with its own molecular signatureSuggests skin barrier disruption in seborrheic dermatitis is distinct with its own disease-specific pattern SAN DIEGO, Calif., March 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARQT), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing meaningful innovations in immuno-dermatology, highlights new research that, for the first time, reveals the gene expression profile of seborrheic dermatitis. The Arcutis sponsored research from The Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was presented in a scientific session at the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) annual meeting (San Diego, CA, March 8 – 12) and answers key questions on the immune response and associated skin barrier disruption of seborrheic dermatitis. “Our research group has had a longstanding interest in defining the immunological pathways that underlie many inflammatory skin diseases, such as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis, shaping our understanding of these diseases and leading to new treatments,” said Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD, the Waldman Professor of Dermatology and Immunology and Health System Chair of The Department of Dermatology, and Director of the Laboratory for Inflammatory Skin Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “We are excited to have successfully employed noninvasive tape-stripping techniques developed from studying these diseases to study an understudied and undertreated inflammatory skin disease, seborrheic dermatitis. These findings will help establish the groundwork for greater understanding of this very common condition.” “The pathophysiology of seborrheic dermatitis has been poorly understood. We sought to understand the gene expression patterns in seborrheic dermatitis in order to determine if this profile is distinct from or similar to other immune-mediated skin conditions,” said Benjamin Ungar, MD, director of the Alopecia Center of Excellence and director of the Rosacea & Seborrheic Dermatitis Clinic at Mount Sinai Health System. “Our data reveal that seborrheic dermatitis has a distinct immunological molecular profile. In addition, the skin barrier disruption observed in seborrheic dermatitis has unique molecular underpinnings, primarily in the tight junction of the epithelial skin cells and lipid metabolism pathways. These findings are the first to characterize the molecular profile of seborrheic dermatitis, and they will play an important role in advancing our understanding of this common and under-treated condition.” Dr. Ungar is also an assistant professor of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The data reported at AAD are from an observational study in which tape-strips were collected from facial lesions from 27 untreated patients with seborrheic dermatitis (Investigator’s Global Assessment score mild [IGA 2, n=400], moderate [IGA 3, n=19], severe [IGA 4, n=4]) and the facial skin of 18 healthy controls and analyzed with RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Tape-strips are a non-invasive alternative to biopsy for transcriptome analysis and expression profiling. These data demonstrate that seborrheic dermatitis is an immune disease with a uniquely polarized profile distinct from atopic dermatitis and plaque psoriasis. In addition, skin barrier disruption is suggested by a downregulation of tight junction and lipid metabolism genes. Specific findings include: 1,374 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between seborrheic dermatitis and healthy controls (674 with increased expression, 700 with decreased expression).Strong and significant upregulation of Th17-related (i.e. IL23A, PI3, LL37) and Th22-related (i.e. IL22, S100A8, S100A12) pathways were detected in seborrheic dermatitis compared with controls.Seborrheic dermatitis also showed significant Th1 activation (OASL, STAT1, CXCL9) compared with controls.There was significant downregulation of skin barrier markers (CLDN1/8, FA2H, ELOVL3) in seborrheic dermatitis compared with controls.IGA positively correlated with immune markers, including Th1/IFNG, Th17/IL17A, and Th22/IL22 [r>0.3; P<0.1 for all] and negatively correlated with skin barrier markers (SMPD4, MGLL, PLA2G15 [r≤-0.38; P<0.05]). “Despite the high prevalence of seborrheic dermatitis, there has been little dedicated clinical or basic research into the underlying cause of this chronic, inflammatory skin disease for decades. Through this collaborative research effort, we have begun to shed some light on the pathways involved in the immune response and demonstrate that seborrheic dermatitis is clearly distinct from psoriasis or atopic dermatitis, which may help explain the clinical expression of the disease, and ultimately provide important insights into its management,” said Patrick Burnett, MD, PhD, FAAD, chief medical officer, Arcutis. “We are committed to advancing the scientific understanding of this disease through additional research and collaboration with the larger dermatology research and clinical community.” Mount Sinai has received grants from Arcutis for research conducted by Dr. Ungar and Dr. Guttman. In addition, Dr. Ungar and Dr. Guttman have served as paid consultants for Arcutis. About Seborrheic DermatitisSeborrheic dermatitis affects up to 10 million people in the United States, and is a common, chronic, and recurrent inflammatory skin disease that causes red patches covered with large, greasy, flaking yellow-gray scales, and persistent itch. Seborrheic dermatitis occurs most often in areas of the body with oil-producing (sebaceous) glands, including the scalp, face (especially on the nose, eyebrows, ears, and eyelids), upper chest, and back. About ArcutisArcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARQT) is a commercial-stage medical dermatology company that champions meaningful innovation to address the urgent needs of individuals living with immune-mediated dermatological diseases and conditions. With a commitment to solving the most persistent patient challenges in dermatology, Arcutis has a growing portfolio including two FDA approved products that harness our unique dermatology development platform coupled with our dermatology expertise to build differentiated therapies against biologically validated targets. Arcutis’ dermatology development platform includes a robust pipeline with multiple clinical programs for a range of inflammatory dermatological conditions including scalp and body psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and alopecia areata. For more information, visit www.arcutis.com or follow Arcutis on LinkedIn, Facebook, and X. Forward-Looking StatementsArcutis cautions you that statements contained in this press release regarding matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the Company’s current beliefs and expectations. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the genetic profile and cause of seborrheic dermatitis. These statements are subject to substantial known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ include risks inherent in our business, reimbursement and access to our products, the impact of competition and other important factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our Form 10-K filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 27, 2024, as well as any subsequent filings with the SEC. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements in this press release. We undertake no obligation to revise or update information herein to reflect events or circumstances in the future, even if new information becomes available. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, which is made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Contacts:MediaAmanda Sheldon, Head of Corporate Communicationsasheldon@arcutis.com InvestorsLatha Vairavan, Vice President, Finance and Investor Relationslvairavan@arcutis.comDerek ColeInvestor Relations Advisory Solutionsderek.cole@iradvisory.com

*仅供医学专业人士阅读参考在谈抗癌的时候提起中性粒细胞，我们总是没有好印象。虽然它是人体免疫的第一道防线，发挥着多种多样的功能，但它抗癌还是抑癌仍旧没有定论。奇点糕写到它的时候，中性粒细胞更多扮演着免疫抑制者的角色，并带来更差的抗癌预后。中性粒细胞的研究其实很难做，它的“寿命”很短，通常只有6-8小时，使得大多数单细胞RNA测序手段无法完成高通量测序；同时，中性粒细胞的mRNA含量又很低，对比巨噬细胞和单核细胞的2.55mg/百万细胞，中性粒细胞的mRNA仅有0.33mg，无疑进一步增加了分析难度。所以，虽然中性粒细胞遍布人体，但我们对这个亲密伙伴的认识仍然很初级。今日，复旦大学附属中山医院樊嘉/高强、中国科学院上海免疫与感染研究所张晓明、复旦大学生物医学研究院杨力课题组在《细胞》杂志发文，研究者们使用新方法分析了143名患者的17个癌种225个样本的单个中性粒细胞转录组。研究者发现，中性粒细胞的表型非常多样，可大致分为10种不同的细胞状态，其中三种在癌症中较为常见，尤其是HLA-DR+CD74+抗原递呈型中性粒细胞值得关注，它在多个癌种中与更好的预后相关。进一步分析发现，HLA-DR+CD74+抗原递呈型中性粒细胞可以诱导T细胞反应，形成有助于抗肿瘤免疫的“热肿瘤”微环境，可协助免疫治疗。这一过程与亮氨酸代谢有关，或可通过短程亮氨酸饮食干预。论文题图中性粒细胞浸润实体瘤的程度在癌种间并不相同。研究者们测试了不同免疫定量算法，对TCGA中31种实体瘤中中性粒细胞浸润程度进行了分析，建立了标准浸润评分和中性粒细胞的组织选择模式，在此基础上完成了对不同癌种样本的标准采样策略，并最终实现了对17个癌种143例患者共计225例样本的中性粒细胞单细胞转录组分析。从分析结果来看，中性粒细胞群体的异质性相当大，研究者将其归为10个大群，分别以以下分子为标记：S100A12+，HLA-DR+CD74+，VEGFA+SPP1+，TXNIP+，CXCL8+IL1B+，CXCR2+，IFIT1+ISG15+，MMP9+，NFKBIZ+HIF1A+，ARG1+。这些亚群具有不同的表型和可塑性，例如HLA-DR+CD74+亚群表现出MHC-II分子的高表达和癌症中的普遍浸润；CXCL8+IL1B+亚群可能代表炎症反应，CXCR2+亚群则有特定趋化性特征。中性粒细胞可分为10个亚群在所有亚群中，HLA-DR+CD74+和VEGFA+SPP1+是最为丰富的亚群，它们对癌种有不同偏好，HLA-DR+CD74+中性粒细胞在非小细胞肺癌、膀胱癌和卵巢癌中富集，肾细胞癌和口腔鳞状细胞癌中较少；VEGFA+SPP1+中性粒细胞的“喜好”则完全相反。研究者将这些亚群与TCGA中的泛癌数据进行了对比分析，发现VEGFA+SPP1+中性粒细胞与预后更差显著相关，而HLA-DR+CD74+中性粒细胞则与预后更好有关，说明后者可能具有一定的抗癌潜力。HLA-DR+CD74+中性粒细胞有什么独到之处？研究者分析了HLA-DR+CD74+中性粒细胞的代谢途径，发现它表现出显著的氨基酸代谢富集，尤其是亮氨酸能够显著上调HLA-DR和CD80等共刺激分子。进一步分析发现，亮氨酸能够显著促进MHC-II复合物组装、抗原加工蛋白酶和抗原装载过程相关基因的表达。这使得HLA-DR+CD74+中性粒细胞可以提呈肿瘤新抗原至T细胞，重塑T细胞免疫组库并增强抗原特异反应。作用机制那么，我们如何利用HLA-DR+CD74+中性粒细胞的这种抗肿瘤作用呢？研究者首先给予荷瘤小鼠含1.5%亮氨酸的水来提升体内的HLA-DR+CD74+中性粒细胞，虽然这有效提升了相应细胞的比例、改善了肿瘤微环境，但未能影响小鼠肿瘤的生长。但补充亮氨酸+抗PD-1治疗表现出了不错的效果，小鼠肿瘤体积显著缩小，并在不同的肿瘤模型中得到了复现；过继CD74+中性粒细胞同样可以增强免疫治疗的效果。亮氨酸+抗PD-1可有效缩小肿瘤研究者指出，中性粒细胞具有独特的优势。相较其他专业的抗原递呈细胞，中性粒细胞对炎症反应更加灵敏，它具有活跃的吞噬和趋化特性，这能使它们快速迁移和降解抗原；此外，中性粒细胞较短的半衰期也使得它们不容易被肿瘤微环境重编程为免疫抑制细胞，这些优势突出了中性粒细胞抗癌的独特价值。参考资料：[1]https://www-cell-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(24)00126-0[2]https://ibs.fudan.edu.cn/23/2b/c21019a664363/page.htm本文作者丨代丝雨

该研究揭示了3次增强剂疫苗的独特特点，即在Omicron感染时通过“训练天然免疫”诱导单核细胞的活化和分化，从而提供保护性免疫。 截至2023年9月21日，全球新冠病毒SARS-CoV-2大流行已导致200多个国家和地区超过7.7亿例确诊病例及超过695万死亡病例，严重威胁了人类健康和公共卫生安全， 小范围的流行伴随新冠病毒进化和变异仍在不断发生。 一般认为，疫苗接种通过预先为宿主建立特异性抗病毒免疫记忆，从而起到预防病毒感染和病毒传播的作用。然而，新冠病毒（SARS-CoV-2） mRNA疫苗或/和灭活疫苗的免疫保护作用和免疫学机制尚未不明确。以往的研究关注新冠病毒mRNA疫苗或灭活病毒疫苗引发的针对Omicron变异株的特异性体液免疫和细胞免疫记忆的建立，灭活疫苗接种发挥的抗病毒作用是否涉及诱导“天然免疫记忆”，迄今为止尚不明确。 上海交通大学瑞金医院瞿介明教授、诸江教授、李庆云教授和陈赛娟院士合作，在 Cell 期刊发表了题为：Systemic immune profiling of Omicron-infected subjects inoculated with different doses of inactivated virus vaccine 的研究论文。 该研究以2022年春季上海Omicron变异株爆发为研究对象，建立了由接种了不同灭活病毒疫苗次数的感染者和未感染者组成的研究队列，通过整合质谱流式技术（CyTOF）、转录组测序（RNA-seq）和血浆微量蛋白的Olink检测技术和整合分析，揭示接种3次增强剂疫苗通过促进HLA-DRhigh经典单核细胞和非经典单核细胞的活化、Th1-like记忆效应性T细胞的极化，并抑制病理性调节性T细胞（Treg）的扩增等机制发挥免疫保护作用。相关性分析等研究提示：接种3次增强剂疫苗诱导了“训练天然免疫”，它会在Omicron感染时促进单核细胞的活化和成熟，而不是分化为髓源性抑制细胞（MDSCs）， 是一触发系例保护性免疫效应的核心事件。 该项研究首次系统性地描述了新冠病毒灭活疫苗接种对奥密克戎感染者免疫反应的影响，揭示了3次增强剂灭活疫苗通过诱导 “训练天然免疫”促进单核细胞的活化和成熟，从而发挥强有力抗病毒作用的分子机制。 通过CyTOF技术深入分析41个免疫细胞表面分子标志物的表达谱，鉴定了包括NK细胞、CD3+ T细胞、B细胞、树突状细胞、单核细胞和中性粒前体细胞在内共45个细胞亚群。在CD4+ T细胞亚群中，研究人员发现感染后3群naïve CD4+ T细胞的比例增加，而与未接种或接种2剂疫苗感染组相比，接种3剂疫苗感染组naïve CD4+ T细胞比例显著降低，提示3次增强剂疫苗可以促进CD4+ T细胞的活化。同时，Omicron感染后Treg细胞的比例及其TIM-3的表达增加，这一增加的趋势被3次增强剂疫苗接种所逆转。此外，感染后CD161hi效应记忆CD4+ T细胞和CD27int效应记忆CD4+ T细胞的比例下降，而接种3剂疫苗感染组与未接种或接种2剂疫苗感染组相比这两群细胞的比例上升。 这些结果表明，3次增强剂疫苗接种可以通过激活naïve CD4+ T细胞产生效应记忆CD4+ T细胞，而Omicron感染引起的Treg比例增加可能对此起到一定的限制作用。有趣的是，研究人员还通过实验证实3次增强剂疫苗接种在Omicron感染后促进CD4+ T细胞向功能性Th1方向极化，这已被证明对防止症状发生具有保护作用。在NK细胞亚群中，CD56hiCD16lo细胞因子分泌型NK亚群的比例在接种3剂疫苗感染组降低，而CD56intCD16hi细胞毒性NK亚群的比例在接种3剂疫苗感染组增加，提示3次增强剂疫苗可能会在Omicron感染后促进NK细胞成熟。 病毒感染的1-4天是一个主要由多种类型的天然免疫细胞的激活和功能主导的时期。在单核细胞方面，发现与健康对照组相比，Omicron感染者HLA-DRint经典单核细胞、HLA-DRhi经典单核细胞和非经典单核细胞的比例呈降低趋势。而与未接种组或接种2剂疫苗感染组相比，接种3剂疫苗感染组中HLA-DRhi经典单核细胞和非经典单核细胞的比例升高。同样地，Omicron感染后pDC细胞的比例降低同时及其PD-1和CTLA-4的表达增加，这一趋势被3次增强剂疫苗接种所部分逆转。由此可见，3次增强剂疫苗接种可以促进单核细胞/树突状细胞的活化和分化。 通过RNA-seq技术，进一步鉴定了一系列与免疫保护/免疫抑制密切相关的基因和信号通路。具体而言，单核/树突状细胞的功能激活而不是MDSC极化、Treg功能稳定性、记忆T细胞活化、Th1细胞分化、病毒复制抑制、低氧通路、TNF和NF-κB通路的活化，与接种3剂疫苗感染组正相关；而免疫缺陷、Th2细胞分化和线粒体代谢，与未接种组或接种2剂疫苗感染组相正相关。此外，与未接种组或接种2剂疫苗感染组相比，接种3剂疫苗感染组单核/巨噬细胞活或分化相关基因OSM、NAB2、THBS1、PLAUR、RAB20、ACSL1和TREM1，pDC激活基因SLC7A5和ICAM1，Treg功能稳定性基因DUSP5、SDC4、DUSP4、JAG1和PELI1，低氧通路基因JMJD6、VEGFA、HIF1A和NFIL3表达上调。相比之下，Treg增殖相关基因MCM3、CDC20和ZWINT，免疫抑制基因如T细胞免疫检查点受体BTLA以及NK细胞免疫检查点PVRIG和CISH，线粒体代谢基因LACTB2、ACADM、MRPS31和PYCR2在接种3剂疫苗感染组表达下调。这些结果表明，3次增强剂疫苗可能通过促进单核细胞/树突状细胞的活化和成熟，同时抑制致病性Treg的增殖，帮助宿主对抗Omicron感染。 BCG疫苗训练的天然免疫曾被提出作为增强对SARS-CoV-2感染的保护性免疫的可能手段。然而，灭活疫苗是否会诱导某些训练免疫通路，并在Omicron感染时再次发挥作用，这个问题尚未明确。研究人员分析了健康对照组和感染组中疫苗接种诱导的差异表达基因，发现在健康对照组中，大约1/5的疫苗接种诱导的基因在Omicron感染时也以相同的方向发生了差异表达，具有高度显著的相关性。为了筛选这33个同时上调和下调基因的核心基因，研究人员构建了这些基因的PPI网络，并揭示了排名前15的核心节点基因，其中包括调节单核细胞激活的基因如TREM1、C5AR1和FOSL1，其中TREM1已被证明是通过促进单核细胞活化从而发挥抗微生物感染的关键基因。有趣的是，这些同时上调和下调基因中的大多数（19/33），在外周血PBMC的26种免疫细胞类型中单核细胞中的表达最高。这些结果表明，在健康受试者接种疫苗后，通过预先训练，在Omicron感染后的某些关键单核细胞活化的驱动通路（如TREM1上调）可能会得到再次加强。 此外通过Olink技术系统检测了外周血血浆蛋白的变化，发现与与未接种组或接种2剂疫苗感染组相比，接种3剂疫苗感染组中细胞因子EN-RAGE、OSM和TGF-α水平上升，而CX3CL1水平显著下降。根据其他文献报道，EN-RAGE、OSM和TGF-α是促进单核细胞活化的关键细胞因子，而CX3CL1是促进免疫抑制性M2型巨噬细胞极化的趋化因子。此外，TNFSF14在接种3剂疫苗感染组中显著下降，而TNFSF14作为一种免疫共刺激分子，已被证明在抑制Treg积累和增殖方面发挥关键作用。 最后，研究团队对14个免疫细胞亚群（包括HLA-DRhi-经典单核细胞、非经典单核细胞、pDC、Treg、3群效应记忆CD4+ T细胞、3群naïve CD4+ T细胞、2群naïve-like T细胞、2群NK细胞）、13个基因（包含单核细胞激活和分化相关基因TREM1、ACSL1、CXCL16、PFKFB3、PLAUR、C15orf48、THBS1和NR4A3；Treg功能稳定性相关基因JAG1和LMNA；Treg扩增相关基因CDC20、ZWINT和MCM3）、3个基因集（2个与单核细胞活化相关和1个与Treg功能稳定性相关）、3种血浆蛋白（单核细胞活化相关蛋白OSM和EN-RAGE，Treg增殖相关蛋白TNFSF14）和9个临床参数（白细胞计数、中性粒细胞计数、抗RBD-总抗、抗RBD-IgG抗体、抗RBD-IgM抗体、抗WT或Omicron BA.2.2的中和抗体滴度、Ct值和尿素）进行Spearman聚类分析，所有这些因素在接种3剂疫苗感染组与未接种组或接种2剂疫苗感染组之间存在差异表达。根据它们之间的互相关系数，对这些组合因素（n=42）进行无监督聚类，形成了两个高度负相关的模块：其中较大的一个模块由三个子模块组成，富集了天然免疫激活、T细胞或NK细胞激活和体液免疫；较小的一个模块富集了Treg增殖。具体而言，在天然免疫激活子模块中，OSM、TNFSF14、白细胞和中性粒细胞计数、EN-RAGE、HLA-DRhi-经典单核细胞、非经典单核细胞和pDC之间的相关性更强，而与单核细胞活化和分化以及Treg功能稳定性有关的基因和通路之间的相关性更强。 总的来说，该研究揭示了3次增强剂疫苗的独特特点，即在Omicron感染时通过“训练天然免疫”诱导单核细胞的活化和分化，从而提供保护性免疫。 上海交通大学瑞金医院呼吸与危重症医学科瞿介明教授、瑞金医院上海血液学研究所诸江教授、呼吸与危重症医学科李庆云教授、转化医学国家重大科技基础设施（上海）陈赛娟院士为论文共同通讯作者。转化医学国家重大科技基础设施（上海）副研究员余山河，呼吸与危重症医学科主治医师林莹妮、副主任医师李勇；上海血液研究所博士研究生陈仕俊，呼吸与危重症医学科主治医师周丽娜、技师宋鹤杰为论文的共同第一作者。