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Targeted Therapy for Pediatric Psoriasis

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Abstract

Psoriasis is an inflammatory immune-mediated skin disease that affects both adults and children. Increased understanding of its pathogenesis has led to the development of highly effective therapeutic solutions in the form of biological drugs for adult patients with severe forms of the disease. The unpredictability of the action of adult-approved drugs in pediatric populations limited their usage in these patients for several years. However, this scenario has been changing, particularly in the last decade, increasing our knowledge of the clinical efficacy and safety of these drugs in pediatric populations. The approval/extensions to approvals of several biological agents throughout the year 2020 makes it important to update the topic. Five biological agents (etanercept, adalimumab, ustekinumab, secukinumab, and ixekizumab) have been approved by the European Medicines Agency for the treatment of psoriasis in pediatric populations, and three of them (etanercept, ustekinumab, and ixekizumab) were also approved by the US FDA for the same purpose. In total, 17 clinical trials of several distinct targeted therapies (tumor necrosis factor, interleukin [IL]-17 and IL-23, and phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitors) are ongoing in pediatric patients and will certainly provide crucial data on the subject, which could ultimately improve the armamentarium we have to target psoriasis in this special population.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Miguel Nogueira & Tiago Torres

  2. Feinberg Medical School, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Amy S. Paller

  3. Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Tiago Torres

Authors
  1. Miguel Nogueira
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  2. Amy S. Paller
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  3. Tiago Torres
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tiago Torres.

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Funding

No sources of funding were used to conduct this study or prepare this manuscript.

Conflicts of interest

MN has received honoraria for acting as a speaker from Leo Pharma. ASP is an investigator (without personal compensation) for AbbVie, AnaptysBio, Eli Lilly, Galderma, Incyte, Leo, Janssen, Novartis, and Sanofi-Regeneron and a consultant (with honorarium) for AbbVie, Amgen, Asana, Dermavant Sciences, Inc., Dermira, Galderma, Eli Lilly, Forte, Leo, Matrisys, Menlo, MorphoSys/Galapagos, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi-Regeneron. TT has received honoraria for acting as a consultant and/or as a speaker from AbbVie, Almirall, Amgen, Arena Pharmaceuticals, Biocad, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Leo Pharma, MSD, Mylan, Novartis, Pfizer, Samsung-Bioepis, Sandoz, and Sanofi.

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All authors contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results, and to the writing of the manuscript.

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Nogueira, M., Paller, A.S. & Torres, T. Targeted Therapy for Pediatric Psoriasis. Pediatr Drugs 23, 203–212 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40272-021-00443-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40272-021-00443-5

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