Common supplement could help fight psoriasis, scientists discover
Scientists have discovered that pantethine, a readily available vitamin B5 derivative, can calm overactive immune cells and may help fight psoriasis. The supplement prevented psoriasis in mice and showed promising results in a small human trial, revealing an unexpected connection between cholesterol and autoimmune inflammation.
Key points
- Pantethine, a vitamin B5-derived supplement, calmed immune cells and prevented psoriasis in mice.
- A 24-patient trial found greater symptom improvement when pantethine was added to standard ointment treatment.
- Researchers link the effect to a Vanin-pantethine-cholesterol pathway in dendritic cells.
A nutritional supplement derived from vitamin B5 may offer a new way to treat psoriasis, according to research from China published October 27 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Scientists found that pantethine can calm the immune cells involved in autoimmune inflammation, preventing psoriasis in mice and improving symptoms in a small human trial.
The work was led by Wei-Na Zhang of the State Key Laboratory of Biomedical Analysis in Beijing, alongside Qing Xia, Ai-Ling Li, Tao Zhou and Cheng-Xin Li of The First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital.
Cholesterol and immune cells
The researchers found unusually high levels of enzymes called Vanins in dendritic cells from people with psoriasis and several other autoimmune diseases. Reducing Vanin levels made these cells less active, and a drug designed to inhibit Vanins prevented psoriasis in mice.
Vanins convert pantethine into vitamin B5. Excessive Vanin activity lowers pantethine inside dendritic cells, which raises cholesterol production and makes the cells unusually active. Restoring pantethine reduced cholesterol accumulation and suppressed the excessive immune activation.
Our investigator-initiated clinical trial demonstrated encouraging therapeutic efficacy of pantethine as an adjunctive therapy in psoriasis
— Wei-Na Zhang
Results of the human trial
In a trial of 24 patients, all received an ointment containing calcipotriene/betamethasone. Half also took pantethine tablets, and after 12 weeks these patients showed greater improvement, especially those with high blood cholesterol before treatment.
The researchers stress that larger studies are needed and that the human results do not confirm the same mechanism seen in the laboratory.
