Science Translational Medicine: These signaling pathways are related to the development of vitiligo

Vitiligo (vitiligo) is an autoimmune disease characterized by local or general depigmentation to form leukoplakia

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine isolated diseased and non-disrupted skin cells from patients with vitiligo, as well as healthy skin samples from normal individuals, and performed RNA sequencing analysis to further study which cells and signal pathways are related to disease progression

They recently published research results in "Science Translational Medicine", linking various signaling pathways with the pathogenesis of vitiligo

The researchers collected lesions and non-lesion skin samples of 10 patients with vitiligo and healthy skin samples of 7 normal individuals

They found that the diseased skin of patients with vitiligo has a high rate of T cell infiltration

More analysis of CD8+ T cells showed that the activation of IFN-γ and T cells in skin samples from patients with vitiligo was increased, even though their melanocyte levels were normal

To further identify T cell recruitment, the researchers used receptor and ligand databases to examine intercellular signaling events

As the results of the study indicate that CCR5 plays a role in inhibiting CD8+ T cells, the researchers pointed out that retaining CCR5 signal while blocking the effector pathway may be a feasible treatment

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scRNA-seq of human vitiligo reveals complex networks of subclinical immune activation and a role for CCR5 in Treg function

SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE 8 Sep 2021 Vol 13, Issue 610