Psoriasis: 7 New Genetic Clues
More Likely, Study Shows
to psoriasis.
If confirmed in other studies,
those gene variants may make good targets for new psoriasis drugs, note the
researchers, who included Anne Bowcock, PhD, genetics professor at Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
"Common diseases like psoriasis are incredibly complex at the genetic level,"
Bowcock says in a news release. "Our research shows that small but common DNA
differences are important in the development of psoriasis. Although each
variation makes only a small contribution to the disease, patients usually have
a number of different genetic variations that increases their risk of psoriasis
and psoriatic
arthritis."
Bowcock's team compared DNA from 223 psoriasis patients (including 91 with
psoriatic arthritis) and 519 people
without psoriasis, and also from two other large groups of people with and
without psoriasis.
Through those comparisons, the researchers identified seven genetic
variations linked to psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis and confirmed other
variations already linked to psoriasis.
One of the newly discovered variants is in a genetic region tied to four
other autoimmune diseases: celiac disease, type 1 diabetes, Grave's disease, and
rheumatoid
arthritis.
Further studies are needed to confirm the findings, Bowcock and colleagues
note in the April 4 online edition of Public Library of Science
Genetics.
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