Approved research

Genetic study of psoriasis and cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Lay summary

Psoriasis is a common and chronic inflammatory skin disease. It may impair the physical and psychosocial function of patients and lead to decreased quality of life and shortened life expectancy. Previous studies have found psoriasis is associated with various comorbidities including psoriatic arthritis, and metabolic syndrome. Psoriasis is also associated with an increased risk of severe cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease, and heart failure. In the past decade, hundreds of genetic variants have been identified to be associated with psoriasis and risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. However, these variants could explain a small proportion of the genetic variability of these traits. It is also unclear if there are any shared genetic components between psoriasis and cardiovascular disease, as well as its risk factors. The availability of both genetic and phenotypic data in UK Biobank provides a great resource to study psoriasis and cardiovascular risk factors as well as their associations in a large cohort. We will perform statistical analysis to test the association between psoriasis and cardiovascular risk factors. We will also examine their genetic associations to determine the effects of genetic components. Our goal is to better understand the influence of genetic and environmental risk factors on the association between psoriasis and cardiovascular disease. The knowledge will provide novel insights into the identification of potential therapeutic targets for these diseases.