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Researchers suggest relationship between psoriasis and MS

Patients with multiple sclerosis are more likely to have prevalent or incident psoriasis, but the pathway that leads to both psoriasis and MS remains unclear, according to a literature review.

“Previous studies have indicated that MS and psoriasis may share similar predisposing genes and mechanisms leading to overactive immune responses,” Chia-Yu Liu, PhD, of School of Medicine, College of Medicine at Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei, Taiwan, and colleagues wrote. “Gut microbiome has been related to the pathogenesis of both MS and psoriasis. However, the relationship between MS and psoriasis is still unclear.”

Liu and colleagues conducted a systematic review to determine the association between MS and psoriasis. A search of the Medline, Embase and CENTRAL databases yielded 11 studies. The case-control (n = 5) and cross-sectional (n = 4) studies included 18,456 patients with MS and 870,149 controls, while two cohort studies included 25,187 patients with MS and 227,225 controls.

In the case-control and cross-sectional studies, MS was associated with a significant increase of prevalent psoriasis (OR = 1.29; 95% CI; 1.14-1.45). Furthermore, in the two cohort studies, the risk for psoriasis was significantly higher among patients with MS (HR = 1.92; 95% CI; 1.32-2.80).

Studying the causal relationship between MS and psoriasis is a challenge as the researchers identified only two cohort studies and the subtypes of psoriasis were not included in this analysis.

While the diseases may share a similar pathogenesis process, it is unknown as to whether the relationship between the diseases directly impacts one another, according to the researchers.

Furthermore, the lack of non-Caucasian studies may limit the findings.

“The association between the two diseases may be due to the shared immune pathogenesis involving activation of T-helper 1 and T-helper 17 cells, with resultant production of proinflammatory cytokines,” the researchers wrote. – by Abigail Sutton

Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.