Genomic analysis of rosacea

Albany Medical College

Lay summary

Rosacea is a very common disease that does not currently have a cure. Our current therapeutic approaches consist of anti-inflammatory medications, laser and light-based interventions, antibiotics, and surgical therapies, although these treatments do not provide a durable antidote for rosacea and are fraught with side effects and complications.

An enhanced understanding of the cell biology of rosacea could facilitate therapeutic interventions and would clarify the changes that result in the disease. Previous investigations have defined distinctions between the skin of rosacea patients and that of controls, including specific molecules, receptors, intracellular signals, and proteins that control the activation of specific parts of DNA. As a result, researchers have begun to determine cellular facets that ultimately lead to the clinical manifestations of rosacea.

However, aberrancies in DNA are not well-defined. A few studies have identified specific genes that are different in rosacea patients, as compared to normal controls. However, these studies have not harnessed the significant power of the UK Biobank. As a result, the use of this banked data would provide a tremendous increase in the confidence in any detected differences.

We intend to use the UK Biobank to delineate genes that differ between rosacea patients and normal controls.