Long-term safety and efficacy of adalimumab in psoriasis: a multicentric study focused on infections (connecting study)

INTRODUCTION: This Italian multicenter retrospective study evaluated safety and efficacy of the anti-TNF drug, adalimumab, in a cohort of patients affected by tuberculosis (TB), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease affecting around 3% of the Italian population and associated with several comorbidities, including arthritis, cardio-metabolic diseases and depression. In its moderate-to-severe form, psoriasis profoundly impairs quality of life of patients. AIM: Therefore, these patients deserve systemic treatments including conventional DMARDS (disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs) and biologics. Management of moderate and severe psoriasis patients affected by relevant infections such as TB, HBV, HCV and HIV may be difficult because of the toxicity of the conventional systemic treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The CONNECTING study analysed 28 moderate to severe psoriasis patients infected by TB, HBV, HCV and HIV who were treated with adalimumab for up to 96 weeks together with respective prophylactic treatment. RESULTS: We observed a rapid decrease in PASI (psoriasis area severity index) reaching a 75% improvement in 91% of patients. Some of these patients (n = 9) were also affected by arthritic comorbidity. The patients experienced a rapid decrease in pain, measured by pain VAS (visual analogic scale) that reached 0 in all of them. Monitoring of the respective infection did not show any worsening or reactivation of infection or any severe adverse events during the entire observation period. CONCLUSIONS: Adalimumab is effective and safe in patients affected by these important infections.