Targeting PI3K/Akt/mTOR for the management of psoriasis

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The continued objective of this proposal is to determine the critical role of PI3K/Akt/mTOR in psoriasis pathogenesis and to develop delphinidin for the management of psoriasis, a common chronic inflammatory skin disorder that affects 125 million people worldwide. Although psoriasis is not life- threatening, it presents disabling physical and psychosocial discomfort and global disease burden associated with psoriatic arthritis and cardiovascular disease risks. Being multifactorial, it is unlikely that hiting a single target will significantly benefit patients, thus the need for developing effective mechanism and target-based agents to treat psoriasis. Among the many signaling networks implicated in psoriasis disease, the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway has emerged as clinically relevant target, as it may cooperatively promote psoriasis. Using retrospective human psoriatic and imiquimod (IMQ)-induced murine psoriasis-like skin lesional tissues we observed activation of AKT/mTOR signaling compared to matched controls. These observations form the basis of our proposal that simultaneous targeting of PI3K/Akt/mTOR may be an effective approach for treating psoriasis. In line with this hypothesis and in our pursuit for non-toxic natural agents endowed with pro- differentiation and anti-inflammatory properties in skin, we recently made some novel and exciting observations with delphinidin. Delphinidin treatment of human keratinocytes pre-stimulated with/without IL-22 inhibited PI3K, Akt and mTOR activation. Further competitive binding and in silico docking analyses revealed that delphindin physically interacts with the PI3K, mTOR and p70S6K kinases with binding energy of -7 to -8.9Kcal/mol range, In this application, we propose to take advantage of the multi-pronged ability of delphinidin and is designed to: 1) Examine the involvement of PI3K/Akt/mTOR and secondary signaling in psoriasis pathogenesis; 2) Investigate the efficacy of delphinidin using (i) in-vitro 2D cultures, i) 3D reconstituted human skin models of psoriasis, and iii) in-vivo IMQ-induced Balbc and TPA-induced K14/VEGF transgenic murine psoriasiform models that recapitulates many features of human psoriasis. A successful completion of this proposal may result in our understanding of mechanism of psoriasis pathogenesis via dissecting interaction of PI3K/AKT/mTOR and the development of delphindin as a novel agent against proliferative keratinizing disorders, including psoriasis.