Assessment of S100B and CXCL9 as markers of ‎activity in non-segmental vitiligo.‎

Vitiligo is frequent disease affecting 1-2% of the population characterized by milky white depigmented ‎patches that can affect any area of the body causing significant stress and psychological burden to the ‎patients. The clinical course of ‎vitiligo is unpredictable including periods of disease stability and disease flares. This nature of the disease ‎makes its management challenging Vitiligo is a progressive disease and during the course of the disease the ‎patients suffer from the activity phases characterized by the appearance of new lesions, enlargement of the ‎old lesions and koebnerization which means appearance of new lesions at the sites of trauma. Different ‎theories have been proposed to explain the pathogenesis of vitiligo including the autoimmune pathogenesis, ‎increased oxidative stress, deficient adhesion proteins and others. On clinical basis, hypopigmented skin ‎areas with blurred borders and confetti-like depigmentation have been associated with disease activity. ‎However, these signs are often subjective and only present in a minority of the patients, therefore, ‎biomarker analysis could be useful to follow patients over time and even predict the chance of future ‎disease progression. S100B is a damage associated molecular protein that was first found to be elevated in ‎neurological disease and melanoma. It was hypothized that melanocyte cell death in vitiligo can be ‎associated with high levels of S100B and even higher levels in active rather than stable vitiligo. CXCL9 one ‎of the CXC chemokine family was also found to be elevated in active vitiligo more than stable disease. ‎Targeting such biomarkers may help controlling vitiligo activity. Through our work, we aim to understand ‎more about the etiology and pathogenesis of vitiligo allowing tailored targeted treatment of this disease.‎ ‎