Researcher Receives Grant for Research into Psoriasis

LEO Pharma Research Foundation has granted Karsten Wessel Eriksen, M.Sc, Ph.D, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, EUR 16,000 to the project; Activation and Regulation of STAT Signalling in Psoriasis, PS.

In the research group, a recently discovery showed that T-cells isolated from skin biopsies of PS patients have an increased sensitivity to the cytokine IFN, leading to an increased and prolonged STAT signalling, as well as an increased production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine, IFN. Studies in mice and skin cells also suggest that increased IFN signalling or activated STAT proteins play a pathogenic role in PS.

Theoretically, it is therefore likely that disruptions in the STAT signalling pathway can change the reaction of the immune system to cytokines in a way that leads to susceptibility to PS. The aim with the project is to investigate whether or not PS T-cells have an increased or deficiently regulated response to cytokines of relevance. Since T-cells play a central role in the pathogenesis of PS, and since STAT signalling is crucial to the reaction of T cells to cytokines, the project will provide a new understanding of the role of STAT signalling in the nature of this disease.

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease affecting around 2% of the global population. The ongoing inflammatory condition is among other things caused by the recruitment of T cells from the immune system to the skin, where skin cells and T cells by mistake activate each other resulting in an uncontrolled growth of the skin cells and an ongoing production of pro-inflammatory proteins, such as cytokines.

For further information please contact:

Karsten Wessel Eriksen,

Post Doc

Tel: +45 35 32 77 54

Email: k.eriksen@immi.ku.dk