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Review
. 2017 Nov 25;18(12):2526.
doi: 10.3390/ijms18122526.

The Genetic Basis of Psoriasis

Francesca Capon  1
Affiliations
Review

The Genetic Basis of Psoriasis

Francesca Capon. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Psoriasis is widely regarded as a multifactorial condition which is caused by the interaction between inherited susceptibility alleles and environmental triggers. In the last decade, technological advances have enabled substantial progress in the understanding of disease genetics. Genome-wide association studies have identified more than 60 disease susceptibility regions, highlighting the pathogenic involvement of genes related to Th17 cell activation. This pathway has now been targeted by a new generation of biologics that have shown great efficacy in clinical trials. At the same time, the study of rare variants of psoriasis has identified interleukin (IL)-36 cytokines as important amplifiers of Th17 signaling and promising targets for therapeutic intervention. Here, we review these exciting discoveries, which highlight the translational potential of genetic studies.

Keywords: IL-36; Th17 activation; genome-wide association studies; genome-wide association studies, GWAS; psoriasis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author has received research funding from Boheringer–Ingelheim. The funder had no role in the preparation of this manuscript or in the interpretation of the data that is discussed therein.

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