Expression of antimicrobial peptides and proteins in etanercept-treated psoriasis patients

Recent papers highlight the role of dysregulated expression of antimicrobial peptides and proteins (AMPS) in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Etanercept, a blocker of the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumour necrosis factor-alpha (INF-alpha), is effective in the treatment of psoriasis. We aimed to evaluate the expression profiles of AMPs in psoriatic skin before and after a 6-week course of etanercept therapy. We included 12 psoriasis patients who underwent medium-dose etanercept treatment for 6 weeks. At baseline and at the end of therapy immunohistochemistry from lesional skin was performed for psoriasin. LL-37, and human S-defensin 2 (hBD-2). After 6-week treatment, the modified psoriasis area and severity index significantly decreased from 37.5 +/- 5.9 to 14 +/- 13.4. Lesional immunoreactivity scores of psoriasin, LL-37, and hBD-2 also significantly decreased after a 6-week course of etanercept. We have demonstrated that etanercept-induced improvement of psoriasic lesions is associated with a significant decline of AMP protein expression. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.