Science / Medicine : Cyclosporine Clears Up Psoriasis

A team of University of Michigan doctors has confirmed that cyclosporine, the powerful drug that prevents organ rejection in transplant patients, can clear up the thick, scaly patches of skin found in psoriasis sufferers.

About one in 50 Americans and Europeans have at least some psoriasis. And in one of 250 people, the condition is severe enough to require drug treatment. The patches of inflamed red skin, often covered with silvery scales, usually appear on the knees, elbows, trunk and face. The scales appear because the body’s normal process of renewing and shedding skin cells is accelerated.

In tests on 85 volunteers, reported last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers were able to eliminate almost all the patches in four out of five patients who received a daily dose of 7.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight.