RNA-Seq analysis of skin from bleomycin induced scleroderma murine models treated with EHP-101 or Ajulemic acid

Several lines of evidence have shown that the endocannabinoid system (ECS) may play a role in the pathophysiology of systemic sclerosis (SSc). Thereby, structurally different dual PPAR?/CB2 agonists such as VCE-004.8 and Ajulemic acid (AjA) have been shown to alleviate skin fibrosis and inflammation in experimental models of SSc. Since both compounds are currently being tested in humans, we were interested to identify similarities and differences in a murine model of SSc. One method available to assess this is the pharmacotranscriptomic signature of the individual compounds. To analyze the pharmacotranscriptomic signature, we used RNA-Seq to analyze the skin gene expression changes from bleomycin-induced fibrosis in mice treated orally with either AjA or EHP-101, a lipidic formulation of VCE-004.8. While both compounds prevented the upregulation of a common group of genes involved in the inflammatory and fibrotic components of the disease and the pharmacotranscriptomic signatures were similar for both compounds in some pathways, we found key differences between the compounds in several functional groups, including genes related the hypoxia, interferon-a and interferon-? response. Additionally, we found 28 specific genes with translation potential by comparing our results with a list of intrinsic human scleroderma genes. Inmunohistochemical analysis revealed that both EHP-101 and AjA prevented bleomycin-induced skin fibrosis, collagen accumulation, and TNC and VCAM expression. However, only EHP-101 normalized the reduced expression of vascular CD31, CD34 and Von Willebrand factor markers, which parallels skin fibrosis, while AjA did not affect these markers. Finally, clear differences were also found in the plasmatic biomarker analysis, in which we found that EHP-101, but not AjA, enhanced the expression of some factors related to angiogenesis and vasculogenesis. Altogether the results indicate that dual PPAR?/CB2 agonists qualify as a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of SSc and other fibrotic diseases as well, and that EHP-101 has unique mechanisms of action related to the pathophysiology of SSc which could be beneficial in treatment of this complex disease with no current therapeutic options. Overall design: RNA-Seq profiles were generated for six- to eight-week-old female BALB/c mice in four conditions: Control, Bleomycin, Bleomycin + EHP-101 treatment and Bleomycin + Ajulemic acid treatment. Please note that the "raw_counts_newsamples.txt" includes raw counts obtained from featureCounts for the samples included in this entry and the "raw_counts_merged.txt" includes raw counts obtained from merging the counts of the samples from this entry with the counts of the samples from the GSE115503 entry.

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García-Martín A, Garrido-Rodríguez M, Navarrete C, Caprioglio D, Palomares B, DeMesa J, Rollland A, Appendino G, Muñoz E