Review Article Lifting the Silver Flakes: The Pathogenesis and Management of Chronic Plaque Psoriasis

Copyright © 2013 Heng T. Chong et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory skin condition in which patients suffer frommild to chronic plaque skin plaques.The disease manifests through an excessive inflammatory response in the skin due to complex interactions between different genetic and environmental factors. Psoriasis can affect the physical, emotional, and psychosocial well-being of patients, and currently there is no cure with treatments focusing primarily on the use of anti-inflammatory agents to control disease symptoms. Traditional anti-inflammatory agents can cause immunosuppression and adverse systemic effects. Further understanding of the disease has led to current areas of research aiming at the development of selective molecular targets to suppress the pathogenic immune responses. 1