Phosphodiesterase 4D, miR-203 and selected cytokines in the peripheral blood are associated with canine atopic dermatitis

Canine Atopic Dermatitis (AD) is a common complex and multifactorial disease involving immune dysregulation, genetic predisposition, skin barrier defects, environmental factors and allergic sensitization. To date, diagnosis of canine AD relies on a combination of patient history, clinical examination, allergy testing and response to diet trials/therapies with no reliable biomarkers available to distinguish AD from other diseases with similar clinical presentations. A handful of studies to identify potential biomarkers in the peripheral blood of AD dogs and healthy controls have been performed with some showing inconsistent and contradictory results. In this study, we, for the first time, report statistically significant increases in expression of phosphodiesterase 4D (PDE4D) gene in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and miR-203 in plasma from AD dogs compared to healthy controls. In addition, we report a statistically non-significant change of the CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratio, a dramatic decrease of three gene markers (PIAS1, RORA and SH2B1) as well as a panel of differential expression of cytokines in AD dogs in comparison to the healthy controls. Our study provides important insight into the complexities of canine AD, and further studies to verify the specificity of these findings for canine AD at a larger-scale are warranted.