Biologics for Psoriasis during the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Published in: Journal of clinical medicine Vol. 10; no. 7; p. 1390
• Main Authors: Kamiya, Koji, Komine, Mayumi, Ohtsuki, Mamitaro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 30.03.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Biological products; biologics; Clinical medicine; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Cytokine storm; Diabetes; Drugs; Enzymes; Epidemics; Hypertension; Infections; Obesity; Pandemics; Pathogenesis; Patients; Psoriasis; Review; Risk factors; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Skin diseases; systemic therapy; TNF inhibitors; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; biologics; systemic therapy; psoriasis
• ISSN: 2077-0383; 2077-0383
• DOI: 10.3390/jcm10071390

Psoriasis is a chronic, immune-mediated inflammatory disease that predominantly affects the skin and joints. The recent therapeutic development for psoriasis has been remarkable and biologics have dramatically changed the treatment of psoriasis. In moderate-to-severe cases, systemic therapies are required to control their symptoms and biologics can provide greater efficacy when compared with other types of therapies. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had a great impact on the lives of many people and has worsened substantially worldwide. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it still remains unclear whether biologics suppress the immune system and increase the risk of COVID-19. In this review, we have summarized the experience with biologics used for treating psoriasis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Biologics seem to be beneficial to COVID-19 infection. Shared decision-making that is based on updated information is highlighted in the time of COVID-19.