The search for biomarkers of disease progression and systemic treatment response in psoriasis

Posted on 7 June 2022

Research Fellow Mark Corbett led a CRD team, in conjunction with clinical colleagues at King’s College London, in conducting two scoping reviews of psoriasis biomarkers, which have been recently published in the British Journal of Dermatology.

One of the reviews evaluated studies of biomarkers of psoriasis disease progression and the other review was on biomarkers of response to systemic treatments. The scoping review process included the review results being evaluated by an expert group of clinicians and scientists from several European research centres as part of the BIOMAP project.

Identifying useful biomarkers can help clinicians predict which patients may be more adversely affected by psoriasis during their lifetime or predict which particular treatments are more likely to be effective. Although several promising biomarkers were identified in both reviews, none were supported by sufficient evidence to be used in current practice without further investigation. Many of the promising biomarkers were also found to play key roles in molecular pathways implicated in psoriasis. Several common methodological limitations of the studies included in the reviews were also highlighted. The findings from these two reviews can help focus future research effort to facilitate promising biomarkers being used in clinical practice.

Corbett M, Ramessur R, Marshall D, Acencio ML, Ostaszewski M, Barbosa IA, Dand N, Di Meglio P, Haddad S, Jensen AHM, Koopmann W, Mahil SK, Rahmatulla S, Rastrick J, Saklatvala J, Weidinger S, Wright K, Eyerich K, Barker JN, Ndlovu M, Conrad C, Skov L, Smith CH; BIOMAP consortium. Biomarkers of systemic treatment response in people with psoriasis: a scoping review. Br J Dermatol 2022 May 23 [Epub ahead of print]

Ramessur R, Corbett M, Marshall D, Acencio ML, Barbosa IA, Dand N, Di Meglio P, Haddad S, Jensen AHM, Koopmann W, Mahil SK, Ostaszewski M, Rahmatulla S, Rastrick J, Saklatvala J, Weidinger S, Wright K, Eyerich K, Ndlovu M, Barker JN, Skov L, Conrad C, Smith CH; BIOMAP consortium. Biomarkers of disease progression in people with psoriasis: a scoping review. Br J Dermatol 2022 Apr 28 [Epub ahead of print]