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Development of an Economical DNA Delivery System by "Acufection" and its Application to Skin Research
Published on: April 19, 2017
Cytosolic RNA:DNA Duplexes Generated by Endogenous Reverse Transcriptase Activity as Autonomous Inducers of Skin
Jean-Pierre Molès1,2,3, Anthony Griez1,2,3, Jean-Jacques Guilhou3,4
1Inserm UMR 1058, Montpellier, France.
Abstract:
Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease of unknown ætiology. Recent studies suggested that a large amount of cytosolic DNA (cyDNA) in keratinocytes is breaking keratinocytes DNA tolerance and promotes self-sustained inflammation in the psoriatic lesion. We investigated the origin of this cyDNA. We show that, amongst all the possible DNA structures, the cyDNA could be present as RNA:DNA duplexes in keratinocytes. We further show that endogenous reverse transcriptase activities generate such duplexes and consequently activate the production of Th1-inflammatory cytokines. These observations open a new research avenue related to endogenous retroelements for the aetiology of psoriasis and probably of other human chronic inflammatory diseases.
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