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Evaluation of immune pathways in the conjunctiva of Sjogren Syndrome keratoconjunctivitis sicca

ABSTRACT: After signing the informed consent, female SS patients (n = 7) and age-and-sex-matched healthy controls (n = 19) completed a series of oral, ocular surface exams. Symptom severity scores were evaluated using validated questionnaires (OSDI and SANDE). All patients fulfilled the ACR/EULAR criteria for SS and the criteria for KCS. Tear meniscus height was measured by optical coherence tomography. Fluorescein and lissamine green dye staining evaluated tear-break-up time (TBUT), corneal and conjunctival disease, respectively. Impression cytology of the temporal bulbar conjunctiva was performed using the Eyeprim™ device. The cells collected were then lysed, total RNA was isolated and subjected to gene expression analysis using the human nCounter® Nanostring Immunology Panel.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE176510 | GEO | 2021/06/10

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Sjogren’s syndrome (SS) is characterized by dysfunctional mucous membranes and dysregulated moisture-secreting glands resulting in various symptoms, including dry mouth and dry eyes. Here, we wanted to profile and compare the tears and saliva proteomes of SS patients to healthy controls. Tear and saliva samples were collected and subjected to an isotopic dimethylation labeling shotgun proteomics workflow to identify alterations in protein levels. In tear samples, we identified 83 upregulated and 112 downregulated proteins. Altered pathways in SS patients’ tears included leukocyte transendothelial migration, neutrophil degranulation, and post-translation protein phosphorylation. In healthy controls’ tears, enriched proteins for glycolysis, amino acid metabolism and apoptotic signaling pathway were identified. In saliva, we identified 108 upregulated and 45 downregulated proteins. Altered pathways in SS patients’ saliva included cornification, sensory perception to taste and neutrophil degranulation. In healthy controls’ saliva, enriched proteins for JAK-STAT signaling after interleukin-12 stimulation, phagocytosis and glycolysis in senescence were identified. Dysregulated protease activity is implicated in the initiation of inflammation and immune cell recruitment in SS. We identified 20 proteases and protease inhibitors in tears and 18 in saliva which are differentially expressed between SS patients and healthy controls. Next, we quantified endogenous proteoglycan 4 (PRG4), a mucin-like glycoprotein previously shown to be present in tears and never studied in saliva, in tear wash and saliva samples via a bead-based immune assay. We identified decreased levels of PRG4 in SS patients’ tear wash compared to normal samples. Conversely, in saliva, we found elevated levels of PRG4 concentration and visualized PRG4 expression in human parotid gland via immunohistological staining. These findings improve our mechanistic understanding of the disease and changes in SS patients’ protein expression will help identify new potential drug targets. PRG4 is among the promising targets, which we identified here, in saliva, for the first time.

Dataset Information

Evaluation of immune pathways in the conjunctiva of Sjogren Syndrome keratoconjunctivitis sicca

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