ViCEKb: Vitiligo-linked Chemical Exposome Knowledgebase

Vitiligo is a complex disease wherein the environmental factors, in conjuction with the underlying genetic predispositions, trigger the autoimmune destruction of melanocytes, ultimately leading to depigmented patches on the skin. Apart from being susceptible to other autoimmune disorders, the affected patients may face social stigmatization leading to a decreased quality in life. While genetic factors have been extensively studied, the knowledge on environmental triggers remains sparse and less understood. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the environemental triggers will not only explain the complex etiology of the disease, it will also enable the prioritization of potential toxic chemicals in human chemcical exposome. Towards this, we present the first comprehensive knowledgbase of vitiligo triggering chemicals compiled from published literature namely, Vitiligo-linked Chemical Exposome Knowledgbase (ViCEKb). ViCEKb involved an extensive and systematic manual effort in curation of published literature and subsequent compilation of 113 unique chemical triggers of vitiligo. ViCEKb standardises various chemical information, and categorizes the chemicals based on their evidences and sources of exposure. Importantly, ViCEKb contains a wide range of metrics necessary for different toxicological evaluations. Moreover, our extensive cheminformatics-based analysis of the ViCEKb chemical space highlighted its diversity and uniqueness in comparison to other skin specific chemical regulatory lists. We also observed that ViCEKb chemicals are present in various consumer products and are not regulated. Additionally, a transcriptomics based analysis of ViCEKb chemical perturbations in skin cell samples highlighted the commonality in their linked biological processes. Overall, we present the first comprehensive effort in compilation and exploration of various chemical triggers of vitiligo. We believe such a resource will enable in deciphering the complex etiology of vitiligo and aid in the characterization of human chemical exposome. ViCEKb is freely available for academic research at: https://cb.imsc.res.in/vicekb.