Anti-cytokine therapy in the treatment of psoriasis.

Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory skin disease with many associated co-morbidities including diabetes, hypertension, obesity, psoriatic arthritis, and cardiovascular disease. It has long been known that psoriasis is a T cell-mediate disease and recent findings further demonstrate the important roles of the Th17 and Th22 arms of the immune system in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Our understanding of this disease has progressed greatly and agents that target the cytokines involved in disease activity are under development or currently being used to treat psoriasis. A comprehensive review of the literature for cytokine-targeted therapies, their safety concerns, and efficacy in psoriasis are discussed here.