Influence of Methotrexate on circulatory levels of T lymphocyte-related cytokines in patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis

Abstract

Objective: To explore the changes in expression levels of T-cell related cytokines, including IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-17a, IL-21 and TGF-β, in peripheral blood of responders and non-responders after 16 weeks of Methotrexate (MTX) treatment. Methods: A total of 49 responders, 13 non-responders and 35 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Pearson analysis was used to determine the correlation between PASI scores and serum IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-17a, IL-21 and TGF-β levels in psoriatic patients before the treatment. Following the treatment, biochemical markers and serum levels of IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-17a, IL-21, and TGF-β were compared among responders, non-responders and normal controls. Results: After 16-week treatment, psoriatic patients displayed significantly higher serum levels of creatinine, uric acid, urea nitrogen, ALT and AST (P0.05). Prior to the treatment, PASI scores correlated with IFN-γ, IL-17a, IL-21 and TGF-β, with coefficient of 0.25, 0.75, 0.66, -0.11, respectively (P<0.05 for all). Conclusion: The potential mechanism of MTX in alleviating psoriasis may be via the improvement of the balance of Th1/Th2 and Th17/Treg.

Keywords

• moderate to severe plaque psoriasis
• methotrexate
• cytokines
• therapeutic mechanism