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Researchers in China have discovered that the vitamin B5 derivative pantethine limits the activity of immune cells that are key contributors to autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis. The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, shows that pantethine prevents the development of psoriasis in mice and also helps alleviate the symptoms of psoriasis patients in a small-scale human trial.

Dendritic cells are specialized immune cells that help to coordinate the different parts of the immune system. They can engulf and present foreign antigens to activate highly specific T cells, as well as secrete a variety of immune signaling molecules to recruit other types of immune cells and promote inflammation. Because of this central role in directing immune responses, aberrant activation of dendritic cells is thought to underlie a variety of autoimmune diseases, including psoriasis.

"Emerging evidence highlights that metabolic pathways and their associated metabolites play vital roles in regulating immune cell function and autoimmune progression," says Wei-Na Zhang, a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Biomedical Analysis in Beijing. "But therapeutic strategies targeting metabolism in inflammatory diseases remain underexplored."

Zhang co-led the new study with Qing Xia, Ai-Ling Li and Tao Zhou, also from the State Key Laboratory of Biomedical Analysis, and Cheng-Xin Li from The First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing.

Zhang and colleagues found that the levels of metabolic enzymes known as Vanins are elevated in the dendritic cells of patients with psoriasis and several other autoimmune diseases.

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