710 Vitiligo clinical and lesional molecular features associated with favorable response to NBUVB combined with topical tacrolimus

Abstract

Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease resulting in death of melanocytes, causing disfiguring loss of skin pigmentation. It is known that numerous differentially expressed genes (DEGs) are present in vitiligo lesional skin. However, it is unknown if vitiligo DEGs are correlated with meaningful clinical characteristics, such as disease severity, duration and therapeutic response. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the clinical correlates of vitiligo DEGs. Thirty seven vitiligo patients were recruited for this study, each consented to skin biopsies from lesional as well as non-lesional skin. RNA sequencing was performed to determine DEGs of lesional skin, and statistical analysis was performed to detect DEGS correlated with lesional duration and favorable therapeutic response to NBUVB-combined with topical tacrolimus. The results showed revealed significant overlap in DEGs between short lesional vitiligo duration and faborable response to NBUVB+Tacrolimus therapy, in that both contained DEG signatures of more active immune response compared with cases with long disease duration and less-favorable response. In conclusion, short lesional disease duration and favorable response to phototherapy are characterized by specific sets of differentially expressed genes in vitiligo lesional skin, which may be useful management decision making for vitiligo in the future.