Omalizumab treated urticaria patients display T cell and
thrombocyte-associated gene regulation
Abstract
Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is a debilitating inflammatory skin
disease with a prevalence of approximately 1% of the population. It is
characterised by recurrent itchy wheals and/or angioedema for more than
6 weeks without known triggers leading to a high quality of life
impairment. The pathogenesis of CSU remains not fully understood. This
study aimed to explore the pathomechanism of CSU beyond mast cells and
IgE-dependent histamine release and to identify possible biomarkers for
the disease and its treatment. We investigated a patient cohort in the
first month of omalizumab treatment regarding the IgE levels and changes
of gene and miRNA expression in peripheral blood. The cohort was divided
into responders and non-responders (depending on the score of the
Urticaria Control Test) and compared to a group of healthy controls. Our
messenger RNA and microRNA microarray analyses revealed the greatest
changes of expression levels at day 2 after the first omalizumab dose.
We identified several genes and miRNAs of interest, most of which have
not been described to be linked to CSU so far, underlining, for example,
to T cell involvement or even suggesting platelet involvement.