Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis: Pathophysiology, Therapeutic Intervention, and Complementary Medicine

Psoriasis is a life-long chronic autoimmune disease characterized by thick scaly skin lesions and often associated with severe arthritis. In psoriasis, lesions skin cells, keratinocytes, grow too quickly, resulting in thick, white, silvery or red patches on skin. Normal skin cells grow gradually and flake off about every four weeks, but psoriasis causes new skin cells to move rapidly to the surface of the skin in days rather than weeks. Psoriasis symptoms often appear on the elbows, scalp, feet, knees, hands, or lower back, or as flaking or patches on the skin. It is most common in adults, but teenagers and children can also suffer from psoriasis.

Psoriasis is not only a skin condition; it is a chronic disease of the immune system. Chronic psoriasis is associated with other health conditions such as psoriatic arthritis, several inflammatory disorders, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. This book provides extensive coverage of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. It features information on epidemiology and etiology of psoriasis, pathogenesis, genetics of psoriasis, clinical manifestations, and treatment options using cutting-edge drugs including adalimumab and tofacitinib.

Natural phytochemicals and nutraceuticals have demonstrated efficacy in ameliorating psoriasis. The book dedicates comprehensive coverage of nutraceutical therapeutic options including antioxidants, bioactive peptides, carotenoids, alpha lipoic acid, curcumin, and whey protein. These inexpensive natural therapeutics are not associated with any known adverse side effects.

Siba P. Raychaudhuri, MD, FACP, FACR, is the chief of the Rheumatology Division at the VA Medical Center in Sacramento, California, and a senior faculty in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Raychaudhuri is a dermatologist, rheumatologist, and immunologist. He has an extensive background in translational research that extends back to his fellowship period at Stanford University, California. Dr. Raychaudhuri’s research group works in arthritis, human autoimmune diseases, cell biology, the nerve growth factor, and animal models of human diseases. His research group has dissected the regulatory role of the nerve growth factor and its receptor system in cell trafficking, angiogenesis, the growth and survival of keratinocytes, T cells, and fibroblast-like synovium. These observations have provided new insights into the pathogenesis of psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis. Over the last three decades Dr. Raychaudhuri’s research has provided significant insight into and understanding of the cytokine network in autoimmune arthritis, which includes the regulatory roles of RANTES, fractalkine, IL-9, IL-17, and IL-22 in psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Smriti K. Raychaudhuri, MD, is a professor of medicine and medical microbiology at California Northstate University College of Medicine. She is also the director of the Cellular and Clinical Immunology Research Laboratory at the Sacramento VA Medical Center, California. She received her MD in 1987 from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. She received her postdoctoral training in immunology at Stanford University, California. She conducted clinical trials on immune-based therapy for HIV at Stanford University. Currently, her research group works on the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, with a focus to elucidate the cytokine network and cell trafficking in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

Debasis Bagchi, PhD, MACN, CNS, MAIChE, received his PhD in medicinal chemistry in 1982. He is the chief scientific officer at Cepham Research Center, Piscataway, New Jersey; a professor in the Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, Texas; and an adjunct faculty at Texas Southern University, Houston. He served as the senior vice president of research and development of InterHealth Nutraceuticals Inc., Benicia, California, from 1998 until February 2011, and then as director of innovation and clinical affairs at Iovate Health Sciences, Oakville, Ontario, until June 2013. Dr. Bagchi received the Master of American College of Nutrition Award in October 2010. He is a past chairman of the International Society of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods, a past president of the American College of Nutrition, Clearwater, Florida, and a past chair of the Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods Division of the Institute of Food Technologists, Chicago. He is serving as a distinguished advisor on the Japanese Institute for Health Food Standards, Tokyo. Dr. Bagchi is a member of the Study Section and Peer Review Committee of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. He has 324 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 30 books, and 19 patents. Dr. Bagchi is also a member of the Society of Toxicology, a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the Nutrition Research Academy, and a member of the TCE stakeholder Committee of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Dr. Bagchi is the associate editor of the Journal of Functional Foods, the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, and Archives of Medical and Biomedical Research, and he is also serving as an editorial board member of numerous peer-reviewed journals, including Antioxidants & Redox Signaling, Cancer Letters, Toxicology Mechanisms and Methods, and The Original Internist and other peer-reviewed journals.