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Alefacept for the treatment of psoriasis and other dermatologic diseases
Author(s) -
Strober Bruce E,
Me Kavita
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
dermatologic therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.595
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1529-8019
pISSN - 1396-0296
DOI - 10.1111/j.1529-8019.2007.00140.x
Subject(s) - medicine , psoriasis , psoriasis area and severity index , adverse effect , dermatology , dosing , drug , immunology , pharmacology
Alefacept is a novel biologic agent for the treatment of plaque psoriasis. Alefacept is a fully human recombinant dimeric fusion protein composed of the terminal portion of Leukocyte Functioning Antigen‐3 (LFA‐3) and the Fc portion of human IgG 1 . The drug likely works in part by inducing the apoptosis of memory effector (activated) T cells that play a central role in the pathophysiology of psoriasis. Alefacept also may interrupt the direct immunologic activation of T cells by antigen presenting cells. Alefacept is administered as a course of 12 intramuscular injections, but other dosing strategies have been explored. After a course of therapy, statistically more patients receiving alefacept achieve a psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) 75 response than those receiving a placebo. Some patients who achieve PASI 75 also experience long‐term remissions from psoriasis. The drug is well‐tolerated and adverse events are rare. Off‐label use of the drug is growing and may be formally explored in the future.