Systemic anti-VEGF treatment strongly reduces skin inflammation in a mouse model of psoriasis

HB Schonthaler, R Huggenberger… - Proceedings of the …, 2009 - National Acad Sciences
HB Schonthaler, R Huggenberger, SK Wculek, M Detmar, EF Wagner
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009National Acad Sciences
Although, vascular remodeling is a hallmark of many chronic inflammatory disorders such as
rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis, anti-vascular strategies to
treat these conditions have received little attention to date. We investigated the anti-
inflammatory activity of systemic blockade of VEGF-A by the inhibitory monoclonal antibody
G6–31, employing a therapeutic trial in a mouse model of psoriasis. Simultaneous deletion
of JunB and c-Jun (DKO*) in the epidermis of adult mice leads to a psoriasis-like phenotype …
Although, vascular remodeling is a hallmark of many chronic inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis, anti-vascular strategies to treat these conditions have received little attention to date. We investigated the anti-inflammatory activity of systemic blockade of VEGF-A by the inhibitory monoclonal antibody G6–31, employing a therapeutic trial in a mouse model of psoriasis. Simultaneous deletion of JunB and c-Jun (DKO*) in the epidermis of adult mice leads to a psoriasis-like phenotype with hyper- and parakeratosis and increased subepidermal vascularization. Moreover, an inflammatory infiltrate and elevated levels of cytokines/chemokines including TNFα, IL-1α/β, IL-6, and the innate immune mediators IL-22, IL-23, IL-23R, and IL-12p40 are detected. Here we show that anti-VEGF antibody treatment of mice already displaying disease symptoms resulted in an overall improvement of the psoriatic lesions leading to a reduction in the number of blood vessels and a significant decrease in the size of dermal blood and lymphatic vessels. Importantly, anti-VEGF–treated mice showed a pronounced reduction of inflammatory cells within the dermis and a normalization of epidermal differentiation. These results demonstrate that systemic blockade of VEGF by an inhibitory antibody might be used to treat patients who have inflammatory skin disorders such as psoriasis.
National Acad Sciences