Two strikes to inflammation: the role for oxidative stress as an early event in the pathogenesis of psoriasis

Psoriasis is an index disease of chronic inflammatory disorders because numerous specific, but symptomatic treatments have been approved as a consequence of identifying T helper 17 cell immunity as being the hallmark endstream pathogenic event of this frequent and relevant disease.

At the same time, several shortcomings prevent the next major breakthrough in psoriasis: precision medicine is not realized, as early pathogenesis as well as factors leading to chronic disease and development of comorbidity have not been identified.

Here, we will investigate the role for oxidative stress in initiating (first strike) as well as perpetuating and driving systemic inflammation (second strike) of psoriatic inflammation using a combined approach of descriptive in silico analysis, mechanistic human cell culture studies, as well as generation of epidemiological evidence.

The overarching aim is to enhance our knowledge of immune-metabolism in psoriasis to enable strategies of primary prevention as well as secondary prevention of chronic and systemic inflammation.