IL-13 and Periostin Elevated in the Blood of Prurigo Nodularis Patients

According to a study published in Frontiers in Medicine, IL-13 and periostin are elevated in the blood of prurigo nodularis (PN) patients, with distinct clusters of varying degrees of type 2 inflammation.

Researchers aimed to define which components of type 2 inflammation are dysregulated systemically in PN. They obtained whole blood from patients with uncontrolled PN and control patients without pruritus. Plasma was analyzed for IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, IgE, and periostin, with analysis of variance used to compare PN and control patients. Additionally, multiple-hypothesis adjusted P value was calculated with a significant threshold at .05, whereas clustering was performed using K-means clustering.

Results showed that single-plex assays of the biomarkers presented elevated circulating plasma IL-13 and periostin in patients with PN compared with control patients. IL-4 (.11 vs .02 pg/mL, P = .30) and IL-5 (.75 vs .40 pg/mL, P = .10) were not significantly elevated, but IgE approached significance. Clustering of PN and control patients together revealed 2 clusters: Cluster 1 (n = 36) consisted of 18 patients with PN and 18 control patients and cluster 2 (n = 11) consisted entirely of patients with PN (P < .01). Additionally, cluster 2 had higher levels of IL-13 and IL-5 compared with cluster 1.

“This study demonstrates elevation of IL-13 and periostin in the blood of PN patients, with distinct clusters with varying degrees of type 2 inflammation. Given this heterogeneity, future precision medicine approaches should be explored in the management of PN,” the authors concluded.

Reference
Parthasarathy V, Cravero K, Deng J, et al. Circulating plasma IL-13 and periostin are dysregulated type 2 inflammatory biomarkers in prurigo nodularis: a cluster analysis. Front Med (Lausanne). Published online December 6, 2022. doi:10.3389/fmed.2022.1011142