Research Projects

Psoriasis is a chronic skin disorder characterized by red, scaly plaques on the skin's exterior surface. The lesion's histology consists of epidermal hyperplasia, abnormal nuclei retention, and neutrophil aggregation. Epigenetic mechanisms play a crucial role in regulating gene expression at both transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. MiRNA-mediated gene deregulation plays a crucial role in disease pathogenesis. The histopathology of psoriasis varies with the duration of the lesion and the course of remissions and exacerbations. The role of miRNAs in regulating the histological features of the disease is yet to be explored. While many molecular markers, including miRNAs deregulated in cancer, are also deregulated in psoriasis, hyper-proliferating keratinocytes of psoriasis never transform into cancer cells. This suggests that an internal molecular checkpoint may be involved in limiting the proliferation of psoriatic keratinocytes. The proposed project aims to identify miRNAs associated with histological features of psoriasis and deregulated miRNAs regulating hyper-proliferation and abnormal differentiation of epidermal keratinocytes. Small-RNA sequencing of 24 paired psoriatic and normal skin biopsies identified 75 miRNAs deregulated in psoriasis. Additionally, several tumor-suppressor and oncogenic miRNAs were identified associated with rete peg elongation and show an opposite expression pattern in psoriasis and cancer. The function of these miRNAs will be further studied in psoriatic keratinocytes and different cancer cells to understand their role in proliferation and oncogenesis.