Superficial Conjunctival Cells from Dupilumab-Treated Patients with Atopic Dermatitis with Ocular Adverse Events Display a Transcriptomic Psoriasis Signature

Dupilumab has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of atopic dermatitis. However, a subset of patients experiences ocular adverse events (OAEs), including conjunctivitis and dry eye syndrome, the pathological mechanisms of which are still unknown. In a bicentric study, we used DNA microarray analysis to compare the transcriptome of conjunctival cells of patients with atopic dermatitis collected by impression cytology before (M0) and 4 months after (M4) initiating dupilumab treatment. Thirty-six patients were included and divided in 2 groups according to their ophthalmological status at M4: 12 with OAEs (OAE+) and 24 without (OAE−). The analysis revealed 52 differentially expressed genes between OAE+ and OAE− patients at M0 and 113 at M4. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis enrichment revealed a psoriasis signature in OAE+ patients, both before and after OAE outcomes. In addition, we noticed the overexpression of several genes involved in keratinocyte differentiation, particularly encoding cornified envelope components. Among the 16 differentially expressed genes selected for real-time RT-PCR validation, 9 were confirmed as upregulated at M4 in OAE+ versus OAE− patients, validating the psoriasis signature, whereas MUC7 was downregulated. In conclusion, these results suggest that a conjunctival transcriptomic profile predisposes some patients with atopic dermatitis to developing OAEs upon dupilumab treatment.