A new drug could effective in treating psoriatic arthritis; patients that tried the drug showed an improvement in their skin condition as well as a reduction in swelling in the fingers and toes.
"We have a medication with a different mechanism of action than currently available drugs, increasing our chances to control this disease, which can be disabling and significantly affects patients' function and quality of life," Doctor Philip Mease, a rheumatologist at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, told HealthDay.
"We know that many patients will lose response to some medications or develop adverse effects, so there is a need for medicines that work differently," he said. "We have a chance to bring patients back closer toward their normal state of being."
Psoriatic arthritis occurs when the immune system attacks the joints in people suffering the from the skin condition psoriasis. Symptoms vary from patient-to-patient. This type of arthritis has a distinct genetic component.
"There are also certain genes that are present in people who develop the arthritis that are not present in people with psoriasis. So there seems to be a heavy genetic component for determining who gets psoriasis and goes on to get psoriatic arthritis," Mease said.
Current treatments for the condition include ibuprofen or Aleve. The drug, dubbed Brodalumab would target the interleukin-17 receptor A, which is found in higher levels in patients suffering from psoriatic arthritis.
In the trial the researchers gave either a high or low dose of the drug (or a placebo) to 168 patients with psoriatic arthritis.
The average participant was 52 years old and the majority were white women.
After taking the drug for 12 weeks patients taking both doses of Brodalumab had a greater response than those taking the placebo.
After 12 weeks serious side effects occurred in three percent of the Brodalumab group and in two percent of the participants who took placebos.
"The results of this, albeit small study are extremely encouraging for patients who suffer from these conditions and for the physicians who treat them," Doctor Robert Kirsner is a professor and vice chairman of the department of dermatology and cutaneous surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, told HealthDay.
The drug will now be tested in a phase 3 trial, which is the final step before official approval.
