Ann Robinson’s research reviews—29 September 2022

Hope for psoriasis treatmentsPsoriasis is a serious global condition, and according to the WHO, has no clear cause or cure. That’s not much comfort to the 100 million people worldwide who live with its unpredictable course and possible skin, joint, metabolic, bowel, and psychological manifestations. New treatments are sorely needed, and there’s optimism about PDE-4 inhibitors—a class of drugs that inhibit the enzyme phosphodiesterase (PDE) involved in inflammation. PDE-4 inhibitor roflumilast has undergone two phase 3 trials of 881 patients aged 2 years and over with chronic plaque psoriasis affecting 2-20% of their body area. Once daily topical roflumilast 0.3% cream achieved statistically better results than inactive vehicle cream (42.4% v 6.1% in one trial and 37.5% v 6.9% in the other). Success was primarily judged using an Investigator Global Assessment to measure whether plaques had cleared or almost cleared by eight weeks. Results also looked good for difficult-to-treat areas…
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