Comparison of gene expression profiles reveals aberrant expression of FOXO1, Aurora A/B and EZH2 in lesional psoriatic skins

Psoriasis is a chronic, non-infectious skin disease affects 2–3% of the population worldwide. In order to find genes possibly cause this skin disease, we re-analyzed the gene expression data-sets from three published studies. We compared the gene expression profiles between lesional psoriatic skin (PP), uninvolved psoriatic skin (PN) and normal skin (NN) tissues. We found that compared with in PN and NN tissues, the expression of FOXO1 is significantly repressed and the expression of AURKA, AURKB and EZH2 is significantly up-regulated in PP tissues (P < 0.001). During the treatment of psoriasis patients with TNF-α antagonist Etanercept, the expression of FOXO1 was re-activated and the expression of AURKA and EZH2 was repressed. These results suggest loss of FOXO1 expression and elevated AURKA/B and EZH2 expression in lesional psoriatic tissues have potential contribution to the development of psoriasis. It is worthwhile to test whether the combination of Aurora kinases or EZH2 inhibitors can enhance the therapeutic effects of Etanercept in psoriasis management.