ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cytokines and Soluble Mediators in Immunity
This article is part of the Research TopicFrom a Drop to Discovery: The Potential of Peripheral Blood for Biomedical ResearchView all 7 articles
PBMC Transcriptomic Signatures Reflect Immune Dynamics and Disease Activity in Psoriatic Arthritis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Rheumatology, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- 2Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- 3Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
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Objective: To characterize systemic transcriptomic alterations across psoriatic arthritis (PsA) disease states, including distinctions from psoriasis-only (PsO), signatures of disease activity, and treatment-responsive changes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Methods: RNA sequencing was performed in patients with PsA, psoriasis without arthritis (PSO) and healthy controls (HC). Four analytical comparisons were examined: PsA versus healthy controls, PsA versus PsO, active versus remission PsA, and paired pre-versus post-treatment PsA. Differential gene expression(DEGs), functional enrichment, and protein-protein interaction analyses were integrated to delineate immune and metabolic programs across conditions. Results: PsA showed extensive transcriptional alterations relative to healthy individuals, characterized by activation of adaptive immune pathways, cytokine signaling, and coordinated metabolic adjustments. Compared with PsO, PsA exhibited pronounced dysregulation of extracellular matrix components, platelet activation, coagulation, and complement pathways, indicating systemic involvement not observed in skin-limited disease. Disease activity was associated with enhanced angiogenesis, cell adhesion, cell adhesion and migration, and extracellular matrix remodeling, alongside enrichment of PI3K-Akt, MAPK, IL-17, and complement/coagulation signaling. Paired longitudinal profiling demonstrated substantial transcriptomic reversibility after treatment, including attenuation of immune, stromal, and vascular signatures. Across analyses, recurrent patterns emerged: pervasive peripheral immune activation, distinct vascular and hemostatic alterations differentiating PsA from PsO, and consistent metabolic remodeling with partial normalization following therapy. Conclusion: This multi-dimensional transcriptomic study delineates immune, vascular, and metabolic perturbations across PsA disease states and highlights their dynamic modulation with disease activity and treatment. These findings provide an
Keywords: Arthritis, Immunity, PBMCs, Psoriatic, signatures, Transcriptional
Received: 08 Sep 2025; Accepted: 06 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Hou, Liu, Xue, Wu, Xu and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Liyun Zhang
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