Clinical Research

At the end of the 70s, researchers made random studies on specific systemic drugs for the treatment of psoriasis that demonstrated that psoriasis is an immuno-mediated disease that involves the immune system. It defends us from all external bodies that enter into our immune system. For what concerns psoriasis, this occurs through the mechanism of the immune-mediated cell that basically involves two types of cells: lymphocytes T and APCs (Antigen Presenting Cells)

Lymphocytes T are "sentinel cells" that react when before an antigen by attacking it and destroying it. This action is mediated by APCs that are specific cells that capture the antigens and ‘lead’ them to lymphocytes so that the latter can destroy them.

The immune process foresees three steps:

  1. Lymphocytes T are not able at birth to recognise any kind of antigen, thus they need to be ‘trained’. APCs are responsible for their training. The external structure of the lymphocyte changes so that from that moment on they will recognise that specific antigen.
  2. Once ‘trained’, lymphocytes T migrate into the blood and move all around the body through our blood vessels.
  3. Once lymphocytes T have reached the peripheral areas of our body, they begin ‘hunting’ antigens. If they meet the antigens they have been trained to attack, they react by reproducing themselves, attacking the intruder and eliminating it.

In psoriasis when lymphocytes get into the blood, they come out of the vessels and go towards the skin where they meet again the antigen, activate themselves and react by producing cytokines.

When they get in contact with the epidermidis, cytokines increase the division speed up to seven times, whilst causing an inflammation in the derma.

The excessive growth of the lower parts of the skin does not allow the upper parts to fully mature.

The final result is that thicker layers of cells accumulate and thus form a plaque.

Research is currently oriented towards the production of protein molecules obtained through recombinant DNA techniques.

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