700 Tyrosine kinase 2 inhibition rescues hair follicles from IL-12–mediated immune privilege collapse and reverses the induction of human alopecia areata in a humanized mouse model

Abstract

Alopecia areata (AA), an immune-mediated hair follicle (HF) disorder, leads to hair loss due to collapse of the HF’s physiologic immune privilege (IP), induced by elevated IFNγ levels and a Tc1-driven inflammatory response dominated by T and NK cells. Given that IL-12 signaling is crucial for IFNγ production by immune cells, we explored for the first time the role of IL-12 and tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2)-mediated signaling in the induction and prevention of HF IP collapse via a selective TYK2 inhibitor (BMS-986202).