ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Activity of nuclear factor κB in lymphocyte populations of children with psoriasis
1 National Medical Research Center for Children's Health, Moscow, Russia
2 Central State Medical Academy of the Department of Presidential Affairs of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia
3 Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
Correspondence should be addressed: Darya G. Kuptsova
Lomonosovsky prospect, 2, str. 1, Moscow, 119296; moc.liamg@avostpuk.gd
Finding: the study was part of the state assignment for the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, № АААА-А19-119013090093-2.
Acknowledgements: the authors wish to thank all the patients for active cooperation and express their thanks to the researchers of the Laboratory of Immunology and Virology, as well as to dermatologists and nurses at the Dermatology Department, National Medical Research Center for Children's Health, Moscow, Russia, who contributed to the study.
Author contribution: Kuptsova DG, Petrichuk SV — study concept and design, experimental data acquisition and analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript writing and editing; Kurbatova OV, Radygina TV — experimental data acquisition, manuscript editing; Murashkin NN, Khotko AA, Ivanov RA — data analysis, manuscript editing.
Compliance with ethical standards: the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the National Medical Research Center for Children's Health (protocol № 2 dated February 14, 2020), conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, and registered with ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04989296. Parents of all children and adolescents enrolled submitted the informed consent to medical intervention in hospital settings, personal data processing and the use of data for scientific purposes.
Alterations in intracellular signaling pathways affecting immune cell activation, proliferation and differentiation of keratinocytes in psoriasis could explain the complex pathogenesis of the disease. NF-κB is one of the intracellular signaling pathways, which is involved in regulation of numerous pro-inflammatory genes, and affects the synthesis of pro-inflammatory cytokines directly involved in the development of psoriasis. The study was aimed to assess the number of cells with NF-κB translocation in lymphocyte populations of children with psoriasis depending in the disease severity and therapy. A total of 130 children with psoriasis vulgaris were examined. The comparison group included 30 healthy children. The study was conducted using the imaging flow cytometry Amnis ImageStreamX system. It was found that there were significant differences in the number of cells with NF-κB translocation in the lymphocyte populations of both children with psoriasis and comparison group. Children with psoriasis had a higher number of cells with NF-κB translocation in the populations of T helper cells, Tact, Treg, and Th17 compared to healthy children (p < 0.05). The number of cells with NF-κB translocation in children with psoriasis correlated with the disease severity PASI (Rmul = 0.32) and BSA (Rmul = 0.31) scores, as well as with the disease duration (p < 0.05). NF-κB determination could be considered an additional criterion for the disease severity assessment in children with psoriasis. The differences in the degree of reduction of the number of cells with NF-κB translocation 24 h after administration of biologics (adalimumab, etanercept, ustekinumab) have been shown. Studying NF-κB in cell populations offers the prospect of understanding pathogenetic mechanisms of inflammation and developing new therapeutic methods for psoriasis.
Keywords: children, biologics, psoriasis vulgaris, PASI, BSA, lymphocyte, NF-κB