Effect of Biological Therapy on Systemic Inflammatory Markers Among Patients with Chronic Plaque Psoriasis

Abstract

Aim:Psoriasis is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease. A generally accepted laboratory marker for monitoring the treatment response of psoriasis is not yet available. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of biologic therapy on the novel inflammatory biomarkers neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), mean platelet volume (MPV), and plateletcrit (PCT) in psoriasis.Methods:Fifty-five patients with psoriasis who received biologic therapy including tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin (IL)-17, IL- 12/23, and IL-23 inhibitors for at least three months were retrospectively evaluated. Psoriasis area severity index scores, hemogram data, and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were analyzed before and after three months of therapy.Results:The CRP, neutrophil count, platelet count, NLR, PLR, and PCT values revealed a significant decrease after three months of therapy, irrespective of the type of biologics used (p=0.008, 0.012, 0.017, 0.001, 0.011, and 0.009, respectively). After treatment, NLR and PLR decreased promptly in parallel with a decrease in CRP, in which NLR has a low-moderate (p=0.025, r=0.303), and PLR has a moderate correlation (p=0.000, r=0.525).Conclusion:Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, PCT and particularly PLR parameters derived from hemogram data can be used to assess the effect of biological therapy on systemic inflammation among psoriasis patients.

Keywords

• psoriasis
• biologic therapy
• neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio
• platelet-lymphocyte ratio