In psoriasis lesions, a positive feedback loop is formed between keratinocytes and immune cells. Under the stimulation of immune cytokines such as IL17 and TNFα, keratinocytes proliferate abnormally and further release inflammatory factors effectively promoting the development of psoriasis [7].
The exosome proteome provides new information for predicting the function of exosomes. Exosomes can carry proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids as signaling molecules to target cells, affecting skin homeostasis and leading to skin diseases [8].Clinical studies have confirmed that the levels of exosomal IL-17A in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis are significantly higher than those in patients with mild psoriasis [9].It can be seen that the relationship between psoriasis and exosomes is very close, and it is necessary to understand the components and function of exosomes derived from psoriasis cells.
DIA technology is currently one of the most attractive mass spectrometry acquisition technologies. It can be applied in the screening of clinical disease biomarkers, studying the mechanism of pathology, and studying drug targets. DIA has been widely used in clinical practice due to its high throughput, high resolution, and high repeatability [10]. Using TNFα inducing keratinocyte HaCat to form a psoriasis cell model is a commonly used method [11], therefore, exosomes derived from psoriasis model cells were selected in this investigation. Generally, exosomes need to be identified based on their characteristic size, morphology, and surface markers. Extracellular vesicles are small vesicles with a diameter of 30 to 150 nm and a cup-shaped cup shape appearance [12]. In this study, we observed cup-shaped vesicles through transmission electron microscopy. NTA detected the vast majority of exosomes, with a range of 70nm. These results indicate that the vesicles in the culture medium obtained in our study are exosomes. To conduct DAI analysis, we used three samples from the control group and three samples from the psoriasis cell model group for exosomes preparation and analysis. After normalizing the raw data according to the median, a total of 2796 proteins were identified, of which 131 were significantly differentially expressed protein molecules, 72 are downregulated out of 131 protein molecules, this result further supports that exosomes derived from psoriasis contain abundant protein molecules.
Oxygen homeostasis is crucial for physiological function and is disrupted in many diseases. ADO is a low oxygen affinity (high KmO2) amino terminal cysteine oxygenase that transduces the oxygen-regulated stability of proteins by the Ndegron pathway in human cells; its activity extends to other N-cysteine proteins, including the angiogenic cytokine interleukin-32[13]. Our study find that this molecule is significantly upregulated in extracellular vesicles derived from psoriasis model cells, providing a new target for studying the relationship between psoriasis and hypoxia.
ARGLU1 is a highly evolutionarily conserved transcriptional coactivator and RNA splicing modulator. The latest research indicates that ARGLU1 is a new embryonic development factor that can regulate the basal transcription and selective splicing of nerve cells [14], thereby affecting glucocorticoid signaling. The results of our study show that the ARGLU1 protein molecule in the exosomes derived from psoriasis cells is significantly downregulated, providing new insights into the relationship between stress responses such as emotions and psoriasis.
The Cbx1 protein can enhance the transcription and expression of Rev-erbα, exerting an anti-inflammatory effect[15]. This result shows that the Cbx1 protein molecule is significantly downregulated in the exosomes derived from psoriasis cells, providing a new target for elucidating the mechanism of psoriasis.
We conducted GO enrichment analysis on the screened DEPs. Our results showed that in the biological process category, the DEPs were involved mainly in skin development, keratinization, and keratinocyte differentiation. In the cellular component category, the DEPs were involved mainly in the extracellular region, and in the molecular function category, they were involved mainly in keratin filtration and extracellular matrix containing collagen, while the enriched proteins term related to molecular functions include the structural composition of the skin epidermis, enzyme inhibitor active proteins.
In the present study, we found that DEPs participated in top 10 KEGG pathways, including the
Ribosome, Phenylalanine metabolism, Purine metabolism, Long-term potentiation, Focal adhesion
Protein digestion and absorption, ECM-receptor interaction, Tyrosine metabolism, Phagosome
and Toll-like receptor signaling pathway.
Focal adhesions are closely related to cell adhesion, migration, differentiation, and apoptosis. A review suggests that focal adhesion kinase plays a crucial role in angiogenesis during embryonic development and cancer progression [16]. Focal adhesive components are targets of biochemical and mechanical stimulation, which can induce critical cell growth and differentiation, as well as regulate the extracellular micro-environment. Focal adhesion provides a flexible and specific tool for exchanging clues of vascular wall components in complex systems. It is a future target for the treatment and regulation of inflammation and vascular disorders [17]. KEGG results of this study indicate that the number of focal adhesion pathway protein components in psoriasis exosomes is the highest, with the highest level of significance. The results of this study show that exosome play a role in psoriasis through focal adhesion, which also explains the formation of the crosstalk between the complex inflammation and abnormal angiogenesis in psoriasis.
An increasing number of studies have shown that Keratin family proteins play an important regulatory role in psoriasis [18, 19]. The Reactome annotation analysis results of the present study indicate that keratinization, and formation of the cornered envelope pathway proteins are most significant, Further analysis revealed that members of the Keratin family proteins were mainly enriched in keratinization, and formation of the cored envelope pathway terms. Therefore, our result shows that exosomes play an undeniable regulatory role in psoriasis.
In the PPI network analysis of this study, 20 hub proteins with the highest correlation were selected to draw interaction diagrams, including EXOSC5, KRT1, KRT10, KRT14, KRT16, KRT17, KRT19, KRT2, KRT5, KRT6C, KRT74, KRT78, KRT9, PDCD11, PELO, RPL23, RPL3, RPL37, RPL37A and RPS24. The protein with the closest connection is usually the most important and is widely involved in cellular processes. The results of this study show that the two protein clusters, mainly composed of keratin protein family and ribosomal protein family, are closely related, indicating that these two protein family proteins play important roles in the occurrence and development of psoriasis.