IPC Councilor Helen Young provides commentary on a study identifying skin-derived myeloid precursors and CD200+ fibroblasts as key drivers of psoriatic disease spread from the skin to joints, highlighting the CD200–CD200R1 axis as a promising therapeutic target.
IPC Fellow Dr. Yemsrach Abawaji shares her firsthand perspective on the barriers to psoriasis diagnosis and treatment in Ethiopia and opportunities to improve care.
Did you miss the IPC symposium at the 83rd Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID) Annual Meeting? Select session videos are now available. The Arc of Disease Control in Psoriasis: Early Interception – Deep Pathway Blockade – Treatment Failure covered early intervention strategies, treatment selection, immune pathway targeting, PsA prevention, clinical escape, and real-world cases that inform long-term psoriasis care.
Depression affects approximately 20% of patients with psoriasis, five times the rate seen in the general population. IPC Jr. Councilor Mio Nakamura, MD, MS, FAAD, walks through the bidirectional relationship between psoriasis and depression, the shared inflammatory pathways driving both conditions, and practical guidance on screening and incorporating multidisciplinary mental health support into psoriasis management.
Commentary: Sex differences in immune responses that underlie COVID-19 disease outcomes
Errol Prens, MD, PhD
Erasmus University Medical Center
Rotterdam, Netherlands
IPC Councilor
PUBLICATION
Sex differences in immune responses that underlie COVID-19 disease outcomes. Takahashi T, Ellingson MK, Wong P, Israelow B, Lucas C, Klein J, Silva J, Mao T, Oh JE, Tokuyama M, Lu P, Venkataraman A, Park A, Liu F, Meir A, Sun J, Wang EY, Casanovas-Massana A, Wyllie AL, Vogels CBF, Earnest R, Lapidus S, Ott IM, Moore AJ; Yale IMPACT Research Team, Shaw A, Fournier JB, Odio CD, Farhadian S, Dela Cruz C, Grubaugh ND, Schulz WL, Ring AM, Ko AI, Omer SB, Iwasaki A. Nature. 2020 Dec;588(7837):315-320. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2700-3. Epub 2020 Aug 26. PMID: 32846427; PMCID: PMC7725931.
COMMENTARY
Because of the growing body of evidence indicating sex differences in the clinical outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, the IMPACT Research Team from Yale University investigated sex differences in viral loads, SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody titers, plasma cytokines, as well as blood cell phenotyping in COVID-19 patients. They discovered essential differences in immune responses during the disease course of SARS-CoV-2 infection in male versus female patients. First, they found that the levels of important pro-inflammatory innate immune chemokines and cytokines such as IL-8, IL-18 (at baseline), and CCL5 (longitudinal analysis) were higher in male patients, which correlated with more elevated non-classical monocytes (at baseline) and more severe disease. Second, they observed a more robust T cell response among female patients than male patients at baseline. Collectively, their data suggest that vaccines and therapies to elevate T cell immune response to SARS-CoV-2 might be warranted for male patients. In contrast, female patients might benefit from therapies that dampen innate immune activation early during disease. The immune landscape in COVID-19 patients is considerably different between the sexes. They conclude that these differences may underlie heightened disease susceptibility in men.
The authors recognize an important limitation of their study: healthy healthcare workers who served as controls were not matched to patients based on age, BMI, or underlying risk factors. Despite their corrections for those confounders in their statistical analyses, residual confounding is not ruled out due to underlying risk factors not available for the healthcare workers’ controls. The limited sample size of this study is an explicit limitation.
Categories
Recent Posts
IPC Welcomes New Councilors Dr. Steven Fakharzadeh and Dr. Rodrigo Garcia Salinas
A New Genetic Clue in Psoriasis: What the ADAR1 Discovery Means
Skin-Derived Myeloid Precursors and Joint-Resident Fibroblasts Spread Psoriatic Disease from Skin to Joints
Also Read
Skin-Derived Myeloid Precursors and Joint-Resident Fibroblasts Spread Psoriatic Disease from Skin to Joints
IPC Councilor Helen Young provides commentary on a study identifying skin-derived myeloid precursors and CD200+ fibroblasts as key drivers of psoriatic disease spread from the skin to joints, highlighting the CD200–CD200R1 axis as a promising therapeutic target.
First-Line Biologics in Psoriasis: Evidence from the BADBIR Cohort Study
In this IPC commentary, Matias Maskin examines evidence from the BADBIR registry demonstrating that first-line biologic therapy in moderate to severe psoriasis leads to faster skin clearance, improved quality of life, and a lower risk of comorbidities. The analysis challenges traditional step-up approaches and supports earlier, patient-centered treatment strategies.
Managing Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-Induced Psoriasis: Inference-Based Guidance for Safe Use of Systemic Therapies
This commentary from IPC Board Member Lluís Puig examines inference-based guidance for managing immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced psoriasis and discusses how biologics and targeted systemic therapies can be used safely alongside cancer immunotherapy.
Subscribe to the IPC Newsletter