Halting angiogenesis by non-viral somatic gene therapy alleviates psoriasis and murine psoriasiform skin lesions

Dysregulated angiogenesis is a hallmark of chronic inflammatory diseases, including psoriasis, a common skin disorder that affects approximately 2% of the population Studying both human psoriasis in 2 complementary xenotransplantation models and psoriasis-like skin lesions in transgenic mice with epidermal expression of human TGF-beta 1, we have demonstrated that antiangiogenic non-viral somatic gene therapy reduces the cutaneous microvasculature and alleviates chronic inflammatory skin disorders Transient muscular expression of the recombinant disintegrin domain (RDD) of metargidin (also known as ADAM-15) by in vivo electroporation reduced cutaneous angiogenesis and vascularization in all 3 models As demonstrated using red fluorescent protein-coupled RDD, the treatment resulted in muscular expression of the gene product and its deposition within the cutaneous hyperangiogenic connective tissue High-resolution ultrasound revealed reduced cutaneous blood flow in vivo after electroporation with RDD but not with control plasmids In addition, angiogenesis- and inflammation-related molecular markers, keratinocyte proliferation, epidermal thickness, and clinical disease scores were downregulated in all models Thus, non-viral antiangiogenic gene therapy can alleviate psoriasis and may do so in other angiogenesis-related inflammatory skin disorders