In silico Identification of Immune Cell-Types and Pathways Involved in Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria

BackgroundThe immunopathogenesis of chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is poorly understood, but recent research suggests that patients can be divided into autoallergic and autoimmune subtypes. Given that not all patients can be controlled with current treatment regimens, including anti-IgE monoclonal antibodies, a better understanding of the immune pathways involved in CSU may enable the repurposing of monoclonal antibodies used for other dermatologic diseases (e.g., Th2 and Th17 inhibitors). Therefore, we investigated the implicated immune cells and pathways by reanalyzing publicly available transcriptomic data.MethodsMicroarray data of CSU and healthy control (HC) skin and blood were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GSE72542, GSE57178). Differentially expressed genes were defined as a false discovery rate