Pathological Role of Interleukin-6 in Psoriatic Arthritis

Abstract EN

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a clinical manifestation of psoriatic disease.

Although the pathogenesis of PsA remains unknown, PsA can be managed by treatments similar to those used for rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Because interleukin-(IL-) 6 has been suggested to have a pathogenic role in PsA, a humanized anti-IL-6 receptor antibody tocilizumab treatment for PsA was recently tried.

However, the efficacy of tocilizumab for PsA was not favorable.

This suggests that the pathogenic roles of IL-6 in PsA and RA are different.

In RA, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) primarily contributes to the arthritis effector phase and IL-6 contributes to the arthritis priming phase.

In PsA, the TNF-related effector phase is similar to that in RA, but the IL-6-related priming phase might not be critical.

This paper discusses the role of IL-6 in PsA.