Common Supplement Help Fight Psoriasis? Pantethine Study
Chinese researchers report that pantethine, a vitamin B5 derivative sold as a supplement, calmed overactive immune cells, prevented psoriasis in mice and eased symptoms in a small human trial. The findings appeared October 27 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
A common supplement could help fight psoriasis, according to Chinese researchers who found that pantethine, a vitamin B5 derivative, calmed overactive immune cells in a study published October 27 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM). It prevented the skin disease in mice and improved symptoms in a small human clinical trial.
Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease, meaning the immune system attacks the body's own tissue. The work also points to an unexpected link between cholesterol production and immune activity.
Pantethine is already sold as a nutritional supplement. People commonly use it to help lower blood cholesterol, because it can reduce the body's cholesterol production.
Overactive dendritic cells
The study centers on dendritic cells. These immune cells identify threats and direct other cells to respond, capturing foreign substances called antigens and presenting them to T cells.
When dendritic cells become excessively active, they can drive persistent inflammation and autoimmune conditions such as psoriasis.
The team found unusually high levels of enzymes called Vanins in dendritic cells from people with psoriasis and several other autoimmune diseases. When the researchers reduced Vanin levels, the cells became less active and were less able to stimulate T cells. A drug designed to inhibit Vanins prevented psoriasis from developing in mice.
The cholesterol connection
Vanins convert pantethine into vitamin B5, a nutrient cells need to produce energy. The researchers found that excessive Vanin activity reduces the pantethine available inside dendritic cells.
As pantethine falls, cholesterol production rises and the cells become unusually active. Restoring pantethine levels interrupted the process, reduced cholesterol buildup in the cells and helped suppress the excessive immune activation.
Earlier research has shown that cholesterol can stimulate dendritic cell activity, and that high blood cholesterol is a major risk factor for psoriasis.
"Emerging evidence highlights that metabolic pathways and their associated metabolites play vital roles in regulating immune cell function and autoimmune progression," said Wei-Na Zhang, a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Biomedical Analysis in Beijing. "But therapeutic strategies targeting metabolism in inflammatory diseases remain underexplored."
Zhang led the research with Qing Xia, Ai-Ling Li and Tao Zhou, also of the State Key Laboratory of Biomedical Analysis, and Cheng-Xin Li of The First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing.
Zhang said the results in mice suggest that insufficient pantethine levels may be a crucial contributor to the hyperactivation of dendritic cells and autoimmune inflammation after Vanins are up-regulated.
