Psoriais Cause & Cure - Dated 2005

[WONG]

Psoriasis cause may have been found
Potential cure, also developed


It may only be effective in a laboratory mouse study so far, but researchers say they may have found the cause of psoriasis, a persistent and disfiguring skin condition that may affect as much as two percent of the world's population.

A Dec. 12 news release from The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston says scientists have identified a protein called STAT3 that initiates psoriasis when the body's immune system is activated to fight off a wound, burn or some other invasion.

The scientists actually developed a skin cream that cured the itching, redness and scaling that psoriasis caused in the study mice. The ointment can also prevent recurrence, they said.

John DiGiovanni, Ph.D., the study's lead investigator and director of M.D. Anderson's Department of Carcinogenesis, said in the news release, "We may have found an entirely new treatment option for psoriasis." The study appears in the January 2005 issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

Until now, the cause of psoriasis has remained a mystery. According to the news release, patches of skin that become inflamed are most often the scalp, elbows, knees, and lower back. Treatments have been most effective in slowing down its progress, but nothing exists to cure psoriasis, DiGiovanni says.

"We may have found the link - the change in keratinocytes [skin cells that make keratin, the substance that comprises hair, nails and skin] that cooperates with the immune system cells necessary for development of human psoriasis."

[ouchyk]

Wong,

Do you know if the cream that was developed has transitioned from mice to humans or in clinicals anywhere?

Any updates from two years ago?

Thanks,
Karen

[daytonaflyer]

Here's a link to the article

http://www.mdanderson.org/departments/newsroom/display.cfm?id=6B55BEF3-EBFD-4093-9A12208ABAB7F8B7&method=displayFull&pn=f9c3953b-da0b-4256-b964a1f5f1376e21

[petty43]

Hey everyone,
I have been lurking forever here and this thread has finally motivated me to post.

I never saw that article when it originally came out - but after reading it, I spent almost the whole evening researching it. It seems to have just dropped off the table after Jan. of '05.

WHY?

This is where the ugly side of me starts to wonder. If they already developed a cream that was nothing short of utterly successful in resolving the induced psoriasis in mice, then why wouldn't the project continue? It is mentioned in one summary of the article that, to quote as best as I can remember, "though a highly effective topical cream was devised it is not known whether it will ever be available as a treatment option."

COME ON!!!!! A potential effective form of help for a group of people who are both physically and occasionally mentally effected by this chronic problem and the trail of research stops? The report shows that ALL signs of induced psoriasis were RESOLVED in the mice. Me thinks it's worth looking into, NO?

I am sorry for ranting folks, but I have lived with P since I was 17 and am now 39. I am finally at the point where my derm and I are contemplating Enbrel. As everyone knows, it is extremely expensive and only effectively works on 50% of people, essentially. My cynical side says "gee, maybe pursuing the cream idea that was tested might be a reasonable proposition. A means of truly offering an effective option - but no. Why really give people with P some other forms of hope?" I am sorry folks, but I am 22 years of fed up with this.

I will be contacting all those involved with the original study and will let you know if and what answers I get.

I don't mean for my post to be negative - it is out of frustration and disappointment in the fact that a possible solution was on the table, and reported everywhere (ABC News even ran it in print and on tv), only to disappear into a void - while expensive biologics are pursued.

[AnnieB]

I tried some googling and also noticed that there were no follow up articles. I hope you find some new info because I am very curious as to whether this approach was pursued by anyone else.

[AnnieB]

By the way, you can find reference to research of STAT-3 that is more recent, but in the areas of cancer research, bowel diseases, and some other conditions. For example: http://stke.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/jbc;282/13/9358

[petty43]

AnnieB,
I found this a few moments ago and emailed Dr. Nicholoff as well, seeing that he is in Chicago, as am I:
http://npg.nature.com/nm/journal/v13/n3/full/nm0307-242.html

What bothers me is that it appears to be leading to injectable biologics again - what about the success of the ALREADY PRODUCED CREAM from the test?? I realize it may not be totally applicable to humans, as the test involved mice, but if part of one of the current biologics is made from mice, then I have to believe that the cream might not be far off from being right...And yes, I believe that our skin, heck our bodies, are incredible miracles where there are millions of things going on - but I keep hearing in the back of my head "the doctors came up with a cream that halts, reverses, and does not allow the psoriatic lesions in the test mice, to return. It also keeps uninvolved skin from becoming involved." Sounds like a pretty darned good solution to me...

I will let you know if I hear from either of the two doctors I emailed.

[ouchyk]

Hi petty43,

Thanks for following up with this.

I would imagine that it takes YEARS to get a product ( rx ) from an idea to clinicals to market and perhaps this is why we haven't seen anything about it. Or it could be that it went down in flames as it didn't transition well from mouse to human...I've seen meds go all the way to clinicals only to fail in the first or second phase.

Could be they are working on it as I type, I hope so.

Let us know what you hear!

Karen

[AnnieB]

I did find this. Apparently the delivery of oligonucleotides using a topical is difficult because they do not easily penetrate the skin. But it seems there IS research in this area--just no mainstream articles about it because no big breakthrough product:

http://www.aapspharmaceutica.com/search/view.asp?ID=59387

[RichJ]

Hey everyone,
I have been lurking forever here and this thread has finally motivated me to post.

I never saw that article when it originally came out - but after reading it, I spent almost the whole evening researching it. It seems to have just dropped off the table after Jan. of '05.

WHY?

This is where the ugly side of me starts to wonder. If they already developed a cream that was nothing short of utterly successful in resolving the induced psoriasis in mice, then why wouldn't the project continue? It is mentioned in one summary of the article that, to quote as best as I can remember, "though a highly effective topical cream was devised it is not known whether it will ever be available as a treatment option."

COME ON!!!!! A potential effective form of help for a group of people who are both physically and occasionally mentally effected by this chronic problem and the trail of research stops? The report shows that ALL signs of induced psoriasis were RESOLVED in the mice. Me thinks it's worth looking into, NO?

I am sorry for ranting folks, but I have lived with P since I was 17 and am now 39. I am finally at the point where my derm and I are contemplating Enbrel. As everyone knows, it is extremely expensive and only effectively works on 50% of people, essentially. My cynical side says "gee, maybe pursuing the cream idea that was tested might be a reasonable proposition. A means of truly offering an effective option - but no. Why really give people with P some other forms of hope?" I am sorry folks, but I am 22 years of fed up with this.

I will be contacting all those involved with the original study and will let you know if and what answers I get.

I don't mean for my post to be negative - it is out of frustration and disappointment in the fact that a possible solution was on the table, and reported everywhere (ABC News even ran it in print and on tv), only to disappear into a void - while expensive biologics are pursued.
hi petty43,
thank you for sharing that and welcome to the p family. you have met some of the wonderful people on here and will find alot of great info. welcome and nice to meet you.

have a good weekend all

richard

[pammy1]

My guess on this topic is that possibly the Psoriasis case might have been an accident. MD Anderson is a Cancer Research Center, so their funding goes to Cancer Research. It could be that they weren't being funded for this type of study although the results showed some findings unrelated to the Cancer. Let's look at the other drugs out there that help with Cancer and now are also used for Psoriasis as well- MTX, Low Dose Naltrexone(not sure if that's the right name), and others.

I hope they don't have to give me Chemo or Radiation treatments one day to get me into remission!! I'm betting it would probably work though.

Thanks for sharing the article and follow up.