View clinical trials related to Psoriasis.
Filter by:The major objective of this study is to evaluate the therapeutic effect of a topical treatment simultaneously inhibiting Dipeptidyl Peptidase IV and Aminopeptidase N (IMTM #IP10.C8) in patients with mild to moderate psoriasis of the skin
Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by the formation of scaly and erythematous plaques. A Th1-cell mediated process is believed to be involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. It is mainly because of the detected Th1 cytokine profile in the sera and tissue. Epidemiologic studies also showed a significantly decreased incidence of atopic dermatitis. According to the Th1 and Th2 dogma, psoriasis and atopic dermatitis are two mutually exclusive dermatoses. However, the simple dichotomy of Th1 and Th2 in the pathogenesis of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis may be overly simplistic.1. Recent genetic studies suggest striking overlapping genetic loci for both psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. In fact, atopic dermatitis and psoriasis shared more genetic similarity than atopic dermatitis and asthma. 2. It is indeed, difficult to find patients with both typical atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. However, asthma is not so rarely encountered in psoriasis. And asthma is one of the hallmark in the diagnosis of atopic dermatitis. 3. The cytokine profile in long-standing atopic dermatitis shifted to a Th1 profile. A mixed Th1 and Th2 chemokine profiles are present in atopic dermatitis. Scratch can result in a Th1 infiltrate in animal model. 4. Patients with erythrodermic psoriasis has a higher percentage of elevated IgE levels. And tissue or peripheral eosinophilia might be present. 5. Eczema is a known precipitating factor of psoriasis. Areas of atopic dermatitis in childhood may serve as koebernizing loci for the future development of psoriasis. And in adulthood, since the main pathologic event of asthma is in the aerorespiratory tract, the presence of Th2 cytokine profile does not seemingly affect the build up of a Th1 profile in the skin of psoriasis.
The stepwise process of leukocyte extravasation to inflamed tissues depends on the expression of a variety of cytokines and adhesion molecules. Recently much attention has focused on the Junctional Adhesion Molecules (JAM). The three members of this adhesion molecule family, namely, JAM-A, -B and -C, have been shown to govern the last step of leukocyte extravasation (transmigration) - the process of leukocytes passing between endothelial cells. In addition to transmigration, some members of this family seem to support additional steps in the leukocyte extravasation cascade. The investigators recently showed, that antibody-mediated inhibition of JAM-C significantly reduced hapten induced skin inflammation (J Invest Dermatol;125(5):969). Recent unpublished work from our laboratory showed, that JAM-C expression of lymphocytes can be up-regulated through specific activators. Hence, the investigators hypothesize, that JAM-C expression is elevated in patients with psoriasis. As it is currently not know, which factors may influence the expression of JAM-C, the investigators intend to analyse JAM-C expression on CD3+CD41- cells at several time-points during the treatment of psoriatic patients. Expression of JAM-C will then be correlated to disease activity (PASI).