Residual metabolic burden in young psoriasis patients successfully treated with biologics

Metabolic disorders are common in patients with psoriasis and contribute significantly to an increased cardiovascular risk. While biologic therapy is very successful in clearing skin lesions, its impact on metabolic parameters is uncertain. Our aim was to investigate the residual metabolic burden in psoriasis patients successfully treated with biologic therapy. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 80 young patients (54 men, 26 women, aged 30-45 years) successfully treated with either adalimumab, secukinumab or guselkumab and topical therapy or methotrexate, and 20 healthy controls. Anthropometric parameters, lipid levels and metabolic indices (HOMA-IR, TyG index and FIB-4 index) were measured. Patients did not receive any other treatments to exclude confounding effects. After analysis, we found that patients treated with three different biologics had similar metabolic status, only the FIB-4 index was higher in the adalimumab group than in the secukinumab and guselkumab treatment groups. There were no significant differences between the patients treated with biologics and the control group. The comparison with patients treated topically or with methotrexate showed that only triglyceride levels, HOMA-IR, TyG index, and FIB-4 index were elevated in patients treated with adalimumab compared to patients treated with topical therapy. Finally, metabolic status was also similar in patients treated with methotrexate or topical therapy. In conclusion, this study suggests that psoriasis patients successfully treated with biologics have similar metabolic parameters to the control group and patients treated with topical therapy or methotrexate. This indicates that there is no significant residual metabolic burden in young patients successfully treated with biologics. These results are clinically relevant and should be considered in the treatment of psoriasis patients.The study is registered at http://clinicaltrials.gov (identifier: NCT05957120). Date of registration: 24th of July 2023.