Clinical application of serum biomarkers for detecting and monitoring of chronic plaque psoriasis

Psoriasis, a chronic, multisystemic inflammatory disease affecting millions of people globally, manifests as erythematous, thick, scaly plaques on the skin. Clinical evaluation remains to be the benchmark for diagnosis and monitoring of this debilitating disease. With current advancements in targeted molecular therapy for psoriasis such as biologics, molecular detection methods may also help guide clinical decisions and therapeutic strategies through quantification of circulating biomarkers, which could reflect the underlying pathogenic events happening at a certain point of the disease course. In this review, we will discuss how biomarkers are detected in serum samples using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). This review will feature candidate biomarkers supported by clinical data for psoriasis including, but not limited to, cytokines, chemokines, adipokines, and antimicrobial peptides. A better understanding of the common method used for biomarker detection would enable physicians to interpret and correlate laboratory results with the disease pathogenesis and clinical outcomes, e.g., severity assessment and/or therapeutic response. With better health outcomes as the main goal, the utility of such information to evaluate and even predict treatment response would be a major step closer towards patient-tailored management.