Amgen and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth have announced findings from a retrospective analysis, which demonstrated that Enbrel reduced C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation, in patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis following 12 weeks of treatment. Median reduction in CRP levels was 10 times greater in the Enbrel treated group compared to the placebo treated group.

Psoriasis is a non-contagious, chronic disease in which the immune system causes skin cells to grow at an accelerated rate. Approximately 80 per cent of psoriasis patients have plaque psoriasis, which is characterized by painful and itchy, red, scaly patches.]

Key findings of the analysis of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis patients without psoriatic arthritis demonstrated: patients had intermediate to high baseline CRP levels, indicating that psoriasis is a systemic inflammatory disease. The median reduction in CRP levels from baseline was 1.0 mg/L in psoriasis patients receiving Enbrel vs. 0.1 mg/L in those receiving placebo.

"The finding that patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis had increased inflammation, as exhibited by elevated CRP levels, reinforces that psoriasis is not only a skin disease, but in some patients may be a serious medical condition," said Bruce Strober, MD, Ph.D., study investigator, co-director of the psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis centre of New York University Medical Centre. "The results from this study are encouraging because they show that Enbrel not only improved the symptoms of patients with moderate to severe psoriasis, but reduced their levels of CRP as well. However, further research is needed to better understand whether reducing CRP levels lowers the risk for developing conditions such as cardiovascular disease that may derive from increased systemic inflammation".

The analysis also evaluated the relationship between CRP levels and body mass index (BMI), an indicator of body fat, in people with psoriasis without psoriatic arthritis. Notably, obesity is common among patients with psoriasis. Findings showed:

CRP is a blood protein that is a marker for a number of inflammatory conditions and is an indicator of risk for cardiovascular disease. The development of a high sensitivity CRP assay (hs-CRP) has enabled detection of low levels of CRP previously undetectable by traditional CRP evaluations. Enbrel is a fully human soluble tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor.