Ricerca Indipendente - Psoriasi

Ultra-violet light B (UVB) therapy has been used by dermatolgists to treat psoriasis for decades. Only a few studies have begun to dissect the mechanism of how NB-UVB therapy causes lesion resolution. Results from this study will aid in identifying other diseases that may be treated successfully with NB-UVB. If we can identify the mechanism of action of this therapy, this may give us additional new therapeutic targets for psoriasis and other diseases. Our overall hypothesis is that UVB induces changes that will indicate a mechanism of action of this therapy in psoriasis.

Primary Outcome Measures:

• The primary outcome is genomic analysis of lesional skin biopsies, in a time course experiment,by microarray and RT-PCR. [ Time Frame: End of study ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

Secondary Outcome Measures:

• cell counts of leukocytes populations in skin biopsies including (but not limited to) myeloid dendritic cells (CD11c and CD1c/BDCA-1), plasmacytoid dendritic cells (BDCA-2/CD123), macrophages (CD163), and T cells (CD3, CD4, CD8, Foxp3, RORγ). [ Time Frame: End of study ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• Effects of NB-UVB on NL skin will be determined by comparison of microarray analysis of NL skin biopsies throughout treatment. [ Time Frame: End of study ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• To determine if there is a set of genes that can predict response, expressed in circulating PBMCs, we will perform microarray on baseline PBMCs, and compare the gene sets for responders and non-responders (discriminant analysis). [ Time Frame: End of study ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• To evaluate if treatment causes an altered ratio of Th17:Tregs in the circulation and skin, we will perform intracellular cytokine staining by flow cytometry on peripheral blood and from the shave biopsy. [ Time Frame: Before and after treatment ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]