Somatic mutations reveal hyperactive Notch signaling in prurigo nodularis
Prurigo nodularis (PN) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by pruritic skin nodules of unknown etiology. Little is known about genetic changes in PN pathogenesis, particularly somatic events, which are often implicated in inflammatory conditions. We thus performed whole-exome sequencing on 54 lesional and nonlesional skin biopsies from 17 patients with PN and 10 patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) for comparison. Somatic mutational analysis revealed that PN lesional skin harbors recurrent somatic mutations in fibrotic, neurotropic, and cancer-associated genes that are absent in adjacent PN nonlesional skin. Nonsynonymous mutations were most frequently present in NOTCH1 and the Notch signaling pathway, a key regulator of cellular proliferation and tissue fibrosis. In contrast, NOTCH1 mutations were absent in AD. Somatic copy-number analysis, combined with expression data, identified recurrently deleted and downregulated genes in PN lesional skin, which are associated with axonal guidance and extension. Follow-up immunofluorescence validation demonstrated increased NOTCH1 expression in PN lesional skin fibroblasts and increased Notch signaling in PN lesional dermis. Finally, a multicenter analysis revealed increased risk of NOTCH1-associated diseases in patients with PN. In characterizing the somatic landscape of PN, this study highlights the potential role of Notch pathway dysregulation in PN pathogenesis and fibrosis.
Authors
- Sarah J. Wheelan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9002-0800)
- Olusola O. Oladipo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9498-1492)
- Varsha Parthasarathy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1422-772X)
- Junwen Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8393-8915)
- S. Shahsavari
- Vedha Vaddaraju (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1410-8461)
- Shahin Shahsavari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9774-4839)
- Waleed Adawi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1242-7960)
- Madan M. Kwatra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6547-8852)
- Thomas Pritchard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7425-4642)
- Won Jin Ho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2644-5086)
- Hannah Cornman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1462-2479)
- Shawn G. Kwatra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3736-1515)
- Ahmad Rajeh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8916-6845)
- Melika Marani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6584-9457)
- Srinivasan Yegnasubramanian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0744-6606)
- Mindy D Szeto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3642-3753)
- Anusha Kambala (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0350-8622)
- Selina M. Yossef (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2463-9438)
- Alexander Kollhoff
- Yagiz M. Akiska
- Anuj Gupta
- Alexander L Gusev
- Yevgeniy R. Semenov
- Davies M. Gage
Institutions
- University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
- Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Duke University (US)
- Johns Hopkins Medicine (US)
- Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
- National Human Genome Research Institute (US)
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (US)
- Center for Systems Biology (US)
- Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- JCI Insight
- Published
- 2026-04-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.172371
- Primary Topic
- Dermatology and Skin Diseases
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Dermatology Foundation
- National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases