Atopic dermatitis (AD) affects up to 20% of children and adults worldwide. To gain a deeper understanding of the pathophysiology of AD, we conducted a large-scale transcriptomic study of AD with deeply sequenced RNA-sequencing samples using long (126-bp) paired-end reads. In addition to the comparisons against previous transcriptomic studies, we conducted in-depth analysis to obtain a high-resolution view of the global architecture of the AD transcriptome and contrasted it with that of psoriasis from the same cohort. By using 147 RNA samples in total, we found striking correlation between dysregulated genes in lesional psoriasis and lesional AD skin with 81% of AD dysregulated genes being shared with psoriasis. However, we described disease-specific molecular and cellular features, with AD skin showing dominance of IL-13 pathways, but with near undetectable IL-4 expression. We also demonstrated greater disease heterogeneity and larger proportion of dysregulated long noncoding RNAs in AD, and illustrated the translational impact, including skin-type classification and drug-target prediction. This study is by far the largest study comparing the AD and psoriasis transcriptomes using RNA sequencing and demonstrating the shared inflammatory components, as well as specific discordant cytokine signatures of these two skin diseases.

As a noninvasive treatment modality, ultrasound (US)triggered sonodynamic therapy (SDT) shows broad and promising applications to overcome the drawbacks of traditional photodynamic therapy (PDT) in combating cancer. However, the SDT efficacy is still not satisfactory without oxygen (O 2 ) assistance. In addition, there is also much space to explore the SDT-based synergistic therapeutic modalities. Herein, a novel Pt-CuS Janus composed of hollow semiconductor CuS and noble metallic Pt was rationally designed and successfully synthesized. The hollow CuS shows a large inner cavity for loading sonosensitizer molecules (tetra-(4-aminophenyl) porphyrin, TAPP) to implement SDT. Moreover, the deposition of Pt not only enhances photothermal performance compared with those of CuS nanoparticles (NPs) due to the effect of the local electric field enhancement but also possesses nanozyme activity for catalyzing decomposition of endogenous overexpressed hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) to produce O 2 that can overcome tumor hypoxia and augment the SDT-induced highly toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) production for efficient cancer cell apoptosis. Importantly, the generated heat of Pt-CuS by 808 nm laser irradiation can accelerate the catalytic activity of Pt and elevate the O 2 level that further facilitates SDT efficacy. Interestingly, the thermally sensitive copolymer coated around the Janus can act as a smart switch to regulate the catalytic ability of Pt and control TAPP release that has a significant effect on modulating the therapeutic effect. The synergistic catalysis-enhanced SDT efficiency and highly photothermal effect almost realized complete tumor resection without obvious reoccurrence and simultaneously displayed a highly therapeutic biosafety. Furthermore, the high optical absorbance allows the as-synthesized Pt-CuS Janus for photoacoustic (PA) imaging and NIR thermal imaging. This work develops a versatile nanoplatform for a multifunctional theranostic strategy and broadens the biological applications by rationally designing their structure.

Reported immunoadjuvants still have many limitations, such as inferior cellular uptake capacity and biocompatibility, overly large particle sizes, single function, and unsatisfactory therapeutic efficacy. Here, large‐pore mesoporous‐silica‐coated upconversion nanoparticles (UCMSs) with a size of less than 100 nm are successfully prepared by a typical silica sol–gel reaction using mesitylene as a pore‐swelling agent and are applied as a novel immunoadjuvant. The obtained UCMSs not only show significantly higher loadings for the photosensitizers merocyanine 540 (MC540), model proteins (chicken ovalbumin (OVA)), and tumor antigens (tumor cell fragment (TF)), but also are successfully employed for highly efficient in vivo vaccine delivery. The prepared UCMSs–MC540–OVA under 980 nm near‐infrared irradiation shows the best synergistic immunopotentiation action, verified by the strongest Th1 and Th2 immune responses and the highest frequency of CD4+, CD8+, and effector‐memory T cells. Additionally, nanovaccines UCMSs–MC540–TF can more effectively inhibit tumor growth and increase the survival of colon cancer (CT26)‐tumor‐bearing BALB/c mice compared with either photodynamic therapy or immunological therapy alone, suggesting the enhanced immunotherapy efficacy and clinical potential of UCMSs as immunoadjuvants for cancer immunotherapy.

Summary High-throughput single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) methodologies enable characterization of complex biological samples by increasing the number of cells that can be profiled contemporaneously. Nevertheless, these approaches recover less information per cell than low-throughput strategies. To accurately report the expression of key phenotypic features of cells, scRNA-seq platforms are needed that are both high fidelity and high throughput. To address this need, we created Seq-Well S 3 (“Second-Strand Synthesis”), a massively parallel scRNA-seq protocol that uses a randomly primed second-strand synthesis to recover complementary DNA (cDNA) molecules that were successfully reverse transcribed but to which a second oligonucleotide handle, necessary for subsequent whole transcriptome amplification, was not appended due to inefficient template switching. Seq-Well S 3 increased the efficiency of transcript capture and gene detection compared with that of previous iterations by up to 10- and 5-fold, respectively. We used Seq-Well S 3 to chart the transcriptional landscape of five human inflammatory skin diseases, thus providing a resource for the further study of human skin inflammation.

Collectively, our data identify IFN-κ as a critical IFN in CLE pathology via promotion of enhanced IFN responses and photosensitivity. IFN-κ is a potential novel target for UVB prophylaxis and CLE-directed therapy.

Psoriasis is characterized by resistance to infections, which is regulated by antimicrobial proteins. Whether antimicrobial proteins play a pathogenic role in psoriasis remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the role of lipocalin-2 (Lcn2), an antimicrobial protein, in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Our results showed that Lcn2 was highly expressed in the lesional skin of psoriatic patients. The neutralization of Lcn2 alleviated epidermal hyperplasia, inflammation, and especially neutrophil infiltration in an imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like murine model. In vitro, Lcn2 stimulated human neutrophils to produce vital proinflammatory mediators, such as IL-6, IL-8, tumor necrosis factor-α, and IL-1α via a specific receptor, 24p3R, on neutrophils, which consequently activated the downstream extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 and p38-mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways. Moreover, Lcn2-induced neutrophil chemotaxis was concentration dependent and mediated by the extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 and p38-mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways in vitro. Furthermore, we demonstrated that both keratinocytes and neutrophils were the sources of Lcn2 in the lesional skin of psoriatic patients. Taken together, these results suggest that Lcn2 is involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis by modulating neutrophil function, and that it could serve as a potential target for treating psoriasis.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has emerged as an alternative treatment of cancers. However, the therapeutic efficiency of PDT is severely limited by the microenvironment of insufficient oxygen (O 2 ) supply and overexpression of glutathione (GSH) in the tumor. Herein, a biodegradable O 2 ‐loaded CuTz‐1@F127 (denoted as CuTz‐1‐O 2 @F127) metal–organic framework (MOF) therapeutic platform is presented for enhanced PDT by simultaneously overcoming intracellular hypoxia and reducing GSH levels in the tumor. The Cu(I)‐based MOF is capable of a Fenton‐like reaction to generate • OH and O 2 in the presence of H 2 O 2 under NIR irradiation. Meanwhile, the CuTz‐1‐O 2 @F127 nanoparticles (NPs) can release adsorbed O 2 , which further alleviates intracellular hypoxia. In addition, the Cu I in CuTz‐1@F127 can react with intracellular GSH to reduce the excess GSH. In this way, the efficiency of PDT is greatly enhanced. After tail intravenous injection, the NPs show high antitumor efficacy through a synergistic effect under 808 nm laser irradiation. More importantly, the NPs are biodegradable. In vivo biodistribution and excretion experiments demonstrate that a total of nearly 90% of the NPs can be excreted via feces and urine within 30 d, which indicates significant prospects in the clinical treatment of cancers.

Epidermal infiltration of neutrophils is a hallmark of psoriasis, where their activation leads to release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). The contribution of NETs to psoriasis pathogenesis has been unclear, but here we demonstrate that NETs drive inflammatory responses in skin through activation of epidermal TLR4/IL-36R crosstalk. This activation is dependent upon NETs formation and integrity, as targeting NETs with DNase I or CI-amidine in vivo improves disease in the imiquimod (IMQ)-induced psoriasis-like mouse model, decreasing IL-17A, lipocalin2 (LCN2), and IL-36G expression. Proinflammatory activity of NETs, and LCN2 induction, is dependent upon activation of TLR4/IL-36R crosstalk and MyD88/nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) down-stream signaling, but independent of TLR7 or TLR9. Notably, both TLR4 inhibition and LCN2 neutralization alleviate psoriasis-like inflammation and NETs formation in both the IMQ model and K14-VEGF transgenic mice. In summary, these results outline the mechanisms for the proinflammatory activity of NETs in skin and identify NETs/TLR4 as novel therapeutic targets in psoriasis.