New Study Shows Biologic Therapy for Psoriasis Could Reduce Risk of Coronary Heart Disease
A study indicates that chronic inflammation in people who have psoriasis is linked to a higher risk of acquiring coronary heart disease.
In a new study published in the American Heart Association journal, Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging, it was found that patients with psoriasis who are treated with biologic therapy comprising protein-based infusions to address inflammation had a substantial decline in high-risk plaque in heart arteries, over one-year.
The study indicates that chronic inflammation in people who have psoriasis is linked to a higher risk of acquiring coronary heart disease.
The study also describes biologic therapy medications as proteins provided by injection or infusion and control process power of inflammation by blocking cytokine action.
Cytokines are proteins that stimulate systematic inflammation. A previously-conducted study presented a clear association between psoriasis and the development of high-risk coronary plaque.
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One Year of Ongoing, Untreated Inflammation
The research provides a description of a lipid-rich necrotic core—a dangerous coronary plaque type made up of dead cells and cell debris, prone to break. In relation to this, broken plaque can result in stroke or heart attack.
According to the study's senior author, Nehal Mehta, MD., MSCE, FAHA, inflamed plaque prone to rupture raises heart attack risks five-fold within a decade.
Mehta, also a Maryland-based Lasker Senior Investigator and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health chief, added that this is the first time that an imaging study in people has presented what one year of continuing, untreated inflammation can do to the arteries.
Mehta emphasized the danger of untreated inflammation. He said that one could just be "waiting" for a heart attack or stroke to happen.
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Over 200 Patient-Participants
The investigation engaged more than 200 middle-aged patients with psoriasis whose age ranges between 37 and 62. It took part in the ongoing observational research, "Psoriasis Atherosclerosis Cardiometabolic Initiative at the National Institutes of Health."
Of the participants, 124 were given biologic therapy, and 85 were placed in the control group, whose treatment was only through light therapy and topical creams.
At the beginning of the research, it was shown that patients with psoriasis had low risk of cardiovascular disease by conventional cardiovascular risk scores, and severe condition of the disease was linked with higher BMI or body mass index, high C-reactive protein sensitivity, and higher coronary artery plaque levels.
After 12 months of treatment, patients who were given biologic therapy were compared to the other control group.
As a result, researchers found that biologic therapy was linked to an eight percent decline in coronary plaque. On the other hand, those respondents from the control group experienced a slight increase in coronary plaque progression.
How Biologic Therapy Helps
Biologic therapy, as explained by Mehta, lessens systematic inflammation and immune activation.
There is a need for the findings to be interpreted with carefulness as it was limited by a short period of follow-up and a comparatively small number of patients.
Additionally, there is also a need for more extensive and randomized studies to understand further how such changes in coronary plaque may result in a decline in strokes and heart attacks in psoriasis patients.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute or NHLBI) Intramural Research Program and the NIH Medical Research Scholars Program at the National Institutes of Health, funded this new study.
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Sep 15, 2020 10:54 PM EDT
