Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease that develops in cycles and can be localized on different parts of the body and especially on the knees, elbows, and scalp. It appears as thick patches of scaly skin with in some cases, complications up to psoriatic arthritis. In France, in 2016, 1.5 to 3 million people were affected by this disease, which also affects 2 to 3% of the world's population.
What is psoriasis?
Although in most cases psoriasis is a benign disease, it can be a handicap that is difficult to live with on a day-to-day basis and can have significant psychological repercussions for people who have it.
This chronic inflammatory skin disease, the origin of which is not precisely known, is characterized by the subcutaneous presence of immune system blood cells, the lymphocytes, leading to a runaway epidermal cell dissemination. , keratinocytes that tend to renew more quickly than normal, thus causing an abnormality of cells that do not have time to reach normal maturation.
The extent and number of lesions caused by psoriasis is variable. It may also be characterized as simple, round, small lesions, more commonly referred to as "drip psoriasis" than as large, extended plaques, "plaque psoriasis".
The causes of psoriasis are varied and may involve environmental, genetic, as well as psychological factors. Alcohol consumption, smoking, stress, and some medications such as
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and beta-blockers, can also amplify psoriasis in people already genetically predisposed. The treatment is currently based only on that of the symptoms and adapted according to the severity of the lesions, involves the taking of tablets to swallow, injections or decoctions.
When psoriasis is very localized and lining less than 10% of the body, the treatment includes the application on the skin lesions, creams containing various anti-inflammatory substances such as corticosteroids, keratolytics, vitamin D derivatives, tazarotene and emollients to soothe and soften the skin.
New experimental vaccine
Researchers from the University of Dundee and Oxford in the United Kingdom have recently developed a mouse-tested vaccine through a study to treat chronic skin conditions such as psoriasis and allergies. cat hair.
This vaccine could be a major scientific breakthrough and is the result of a combination of the cucumber mosaic virus, a viral disease that can attack cucurbits, and a protein derived from the tetanus virus, which has the potential to boost Blood cells of the immune system, the lymphocytes, by a high antibody production, targeting the protein responsible for psoriasis.
Unlike other viruses, the cucumber mosaic virus has a singularly stable protein envelope that maintains its shape even when foreign protein pieces are introduced. In the case of this vaccine, the tetanus vaccine derivative will improve the response rate to the new vaccine because it activates T cells (lymphocytes) that already respond to tetanus.
Human experimentation process
This vaccine is likely to be tested in humans soon via clinical trials and could, if successful, replace monthly injections of antibodies adopted in cases of severe psoriasis and provide a more affordable alternative healing.
This would therefore constitute significant scientific progress since the vaccine could succeed, as regards moderate to severe psoriasis, to biotherapies, grouped in a category of medicines called monoclonal antibodies, which target a substance that is involved in the mechanism of inflammation of psoriasis and prescribed in the form of injections.
