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©2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved.
Biomarkers of psoriasis severity and therapy monitoring
Susana Coimbra, Alice Santos-Silva, Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Universidade do Porto, 4150 Porto, Portugal
Susana Coimbra, CESPU, Instituto de Investigação e Formação Avançada em Ciências e Tecnologias da Saúde, 4585 Gandra-PRD, Portugal
Alice Santos-Silva, Laboratório de Bioquímica, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade do Porto, 4150 Porto, Portugal
Author contributions: Coimbra S and Santos-Silva A contributed equally to this work; Both the authors have substantial contribution to the conception, design, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data; to the drafting of the article; and both approved the final version to be published.
Correspondence to: Susana Coimbra, PhD, Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular da Universidade do Porto, Rua Campo Alegre 823, 4150 Porto, Portugal. ssn.coimbra@gmail.com
Telephone: +351-962-677495 Fax: +351-226-099157
Received: November 20, 2013
Revised: January 13, 2014
Accepted: February 16, 2014
Published online: May 2, 2014
Processing time: 181 Days and 14.8 Hours
Revised: January 13, 2014
Accepted: February 16, 2014
Published online: May 2, 2014
Processing time: 181 Days and 14.8 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Severity of psoriasis, a chronic, recurrent inflammatory disease, is clinically evaluated by Psoriasis Area and Severity Index that present some limitations and subjectivity. Biological markers for diagnosis and prognosis of psoriasis help to establish its severity and to monitor the therapeutic response; moreover, psoriasis biomarkers assist clinicians in their therapeutic decision to treat psoriasis and to choose earlier and more adequate therapeutic strategies, avoiding or minimizing psoriasis worsening. As any attempt to identify these biomarkers should be encouraged, in this review, we will debate published data concerning the proposal of biomarkers to evaluate severity and response to treatment of psoriasis.