Background: Systemic sclerosis (Ssc) is an autoimmune disorder marked by excessive fibrosis, microvascular stenosis, and systemic clinical manifestations. An autoimmune process is believed to induce T-cell activation, mainly CD 4 T helper cells, and enhance production of proinflammatory and profibrotic cytokines such as IL 4 and IL 13. These cytokines contribute to vasculopathy and excessive collagen synthesis. UBASH3a and TIGIT are coinhibitory receptors expressed on T cell to suppress T cell activation.

Objective: Our study aimed to explore UBASH3A and TIGIT mRNA expression levels in systemic sclerosis (Ssc) patients compared to healthy controls. 

Methodology: We detected the mRNA levels via real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in total RNA, isolated from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 30 Ssc patients and 30 age and sex matched  healthy controls with RNA extraction kits.

Results: The expression level of UBASH3A and TIGIT mRNA was significantly high in PBMCs from Ssc patients in comparison with healthy subjects.

 Conclusion : increased expression of TIGIT and UBASH3A3 in SSc patients may indicaes that those patients express CO-IRs signatures reminiscent of immune cell exhaustion so they may be candidate for targeted therapy