Psoriasis is a non-contagious, partly genetically determined chronic inflammatory skin disease affecting around 2.5% of the population in Europe. The cytokine IL-17 plays a central role in the development of psoriasis. While psoriasis was once considered as an isolated skin disease, it is now regarded as a systemic inflammatory disease. The most common comorbidity associated with psoriasis is the metabolic syndrome including obesity, diabetes mellitus, elevated liver enzymes, and steatotic liver disease.
This research project will investigate the association between psoriasis, obesity, and steatotic liver disease, using complex experimental methods. The main research question is whether treating steatotic liver cells and/or inflamed adipocytes with milk thistle extract can reduce psoriatic and hepatic inflammation in the cell culture and thus might offer an additional treatment option. Different milk thistle extracts will be tested to select the most effective one. A possible synergetic effect with turmeric extract will also be investigated. Turmeric extract has already been shown to have a lipid-lowering effect on obesity. Additionally, it will be examined whether the anti-IL-17A antibody ixekizumab shows superior and quicker efficacy in treating psoriasis inflammation when combined with milk thistle extract or turmeric extract. Ixekizumab is approved for the systematic treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis.
Ideally, this phytotherapeutic treatment approach could cost-effectively improve steatotic liver disease and obesity and could reduce the need for expansive antibody therapies and improve the quality of life of psoriasis patients.