Liv Eidsmo

Project summary

Local disease memory in the skin – a new target for future treatment of psoriasis and eczema

Liv Eidsmo studies why skin inflammation, such as psoriasis and eczema, repeatedly returns to the same areas of the skin. Eidsmo investigates the factors that activate long-lived T cells in the immune system, causing inflammation to recur at the same site, and tests methods to determine whether this disease memory can be eliminated through treatment.

 

Chronic or recurrent inflammatory skin diseases such as contact allergy and psoriasis cause considerable suffering for patients. Effective treatment can provide temporary relief from symptoms, but inflammation returns to previously affected areas once treatment is discontinued, suggesting that a local disease memory develops during the active phase of inflammation. Tissue-resident memory T cells, known as TRM cells, have been identified in the skin following viral infections, where they provide local protection against recurrent infection. We have shown that TRM cells remain in the skin in psoriasis and are primed to produce disease-driving cytokines even after up to six years of effective treatment. TRM cells may therefore constitute a local disease memory, and we are studying how they drive recurrent and chronic inflammation in the skin.

 

In this research project, we investigate the factors that activate TRM cells and test methods to determine whether local disease memories can be eliminated through treatment. Our aim is to link preclinical knowledge with clinical observations and drug studies in order to deepen our understanding of fundamental tissue immunology in chronic inflammation. This knowledge may benefit not only patients with skin diseases but also patients with other inflammatory diseases affecting different tissues.