Medication apremilast leads to fat loss in people with psoriasis

Medical Xpress / Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania / JAMA Dermatology ^ | Sept. 21, 2022 | Joel M. Gelfand et al

[ConservativeMind]

For years, apremilast (brand name Otezla) has helped psoriasis patients achieve clearer skin and ease the symptoms of their psoriatic arthritis. Now, new data from researchers shows it could also help people with psoriasis shed unhealthy body fat and therefore improve cardiovascular health, a well-known vulnerability for those with psoriasis.

"The study's most provocative findings are that the drug decreased subcutaneous and visceral fat," said Joel M. Gelfand, MD, MSCE.

People with psoriasis face elevated risks of serious cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke. A substantial body of scientific evidence from previous research, including a seminal 2006 paper from Gelfand published in JAMA, shows that people with psoriasis, particularly those with a severe form of the disease, have an increased risk of death from cardiovascular causes when compared to the general population, Gelfand said.

The current study, which included 70 patients, primarily measured changes in inflammation around the aorta, the body's largest artery, but also assessed changes in body composition and 68 cardiometabolic biomarkers.

While apremilast brought about no meaningful changes in aortic inflammation on the whole, it generated "variable but generally beneficial" decreases in certain biomarkers that impact cardiovascular health. The most notable change was an average 5 to 6 percent reduction in subcutaneous and visceral fat that emerged roughly four months into treatment with apremilast and persisted during treatment and through the end of the study at the one-year mark.

"Visceral fat, or fat that wraps around the abdominal organs, is of special interest because it is particularly dangerous from a cardiovascular standpoint," Gelfand said. "It leads to problems like metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and other issues, so seeing a drop in visceral fat during apremilast treatment suggests that, over the longer term, psoriasis patients who take apremilast may be on a trajectory toward better cardiovascular health."

[ConservativeMind]

Five percent loss of body fat in four months, as a positive side effect, is great!

[ConservativeMind]

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