2020 Online Salon
Feed-forward inflammation in psoriasis

Project Details
- Entrant Name: Lohitha Kethu
- Membership Type: Professional Submission
- Address: Herndon, Virginia USA
- Client: Journal of the American Medical Association
- Copyright: 2020 American Medical Association
- Medium/software used: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
- Final presentation format: Academic journal
- Primary Audience: Clinicians and researchers
Project Description
This figure is featured in a review article that discusses the complex pathophysiology of psoriasis and current available treatments that target specific pathways. Psoriasis involves excessive feed-forward activation of the immune system (Cytokines produced at an intermediate point in the pathway affect increased downstream production of cytokines). The aim of the figure is to summarize the pathways of inflammation, current treatments, and to highlight the predominant feed-forward mechanism for which the most treatments are available, the IL-23-mediated activation of the helper T-cell-17 pathway. End products of this inflammatory cascade shown include angiogenesis, keratinocyte proliferation, and build-up of immune cells in the lesional skin, all of which contribute to the characteristic scaly, red plaques of psoriasis.