Three proteins are involved in the production of inflammatory molecules, responsible for the disease.
- Psoriasis affects approximately 2% of the population in France.
- The exact causes of this disease are unknown, but it is linked to a disturbance in the immune system.
- Researchers believe TWEAK may be involved in other inflammatory skin diseases, such as eczema.
Patches of red, inflamed skin accompanied by painful rashes: Psoriasis is a debilitating inflammatory disease, which is expressed in flare-ups. It is caused by an accelerated renewal of skin cells, which generates lesions. Today, treatments make it possible to relieve the crises, to prevent them from occurring but nothing makes it possible to cure them definitively. In some people, no medicine is effective. Californian researchers, member of the La Jolla Institute of Immunology, are working on another therapeutic option. They publish their findings in Science Immunology.
How is inflammation triggered?
Study co-author Prof. Michael Croft and his team discovered that a protein called TWEAK damages skin cells in patients with psoriasis. This protein interacts with skin cells, the keratinocytes. By studying mice deficient in TWEAK, the researchers noticed that TWEAK is a driver of inflammation in a type of psoriasis. But this protein does not work alone: in other work, carried out on humans, they found that it associates with two other proteins, called tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin-17 (IL- 17), in order to trigger inflammation. This trio seems to control the production of inflammatory molecules in patients with psoriasis.
A potential treatment for psoriasis
In a second step, the scientists tested this hypothesis on mice. In some they inhibited TWEAK, in others they deactivated either of the other two proteins. “If you prevent TWEAK from working on its receptor on keratinocytes, you get the same therapeutic effect as when you inhibit TNF or IL-17, explains Rinkesh Gupta, co-author of this research. This finding is particularly encouraging because both TNF and IL-17 are FDA-approved drug targets for psoriasis.” The Food and Drug Administration is the organization in charge of approving drugs in the United States. For the authors of the study, TWEAK can be considered as a new therapeutic target against psoriasis, even if human trials will have to confirm these results. For now, they are continuing their research on the role of this protein in inflammatory skin diseases.
.
