A cheap cholesterol vitamin just eased psoriasis in a trial

A cheap vitamin B5 supplement already sold to lower cholesterol improved psoriasis symptoms in an early human trial, researchers in Beijing reported October 27 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. The team, led by Wei-Na Zhang at the State Key Laboratory of Biomedical Analysis, traced the condition to overactive immune coordinators called dendritic cells, which flood the body with inflammation. Those cells burn through pantethine, the supplement, and ramp up cholesterol production as the supply falls. Restoring pantethine calmed them down. The approach prevented psoriasis in mice. Then 24 patients joined a small trial, all using a standard ointment, half also taking pantethine tablets. After 12 weeks, the pantethine group improved more, especially those who started with high cholesterol. Zhang is careful about the size of it. She calls the work "proof-of-concept for clinical feasibility rather than direct mechanistic validation." Twenty-four people is a start, and she knows it.