The ichthyoses are a group of lifelong genetic disorders which share characteristics of generalized skin thickening, scaling and underlying cutaneous inflammation. The vast majority are orphan disorders and are associated with extremely poor quality of life related to social ostracism from altered appearance, associated itchiness and discomfort, and functional limitations from the skin disease. Among the most common of these orphan disorders are autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis (ARCI) with its phenotypic subsets of lamellar ichthyosis (ARCI-LI) and congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma (ARCI-CIE), epidermolytic ichthyosis (EI) and Netherton syndrome (NS). Therapy is time-consuming for patients or parents and is supportive, focusing on clearance of the scaling. There are no therapies based on growing understanding of what causes the disease. There have been recent discoveries of marked elevations in expression of interleukin-17A (IL-17A) and IL-17-related cytokines in the skin of individuals with ichthyosis, which may explain the inflammation. Psoriasis, another inflammatory skin disorder with redness and scaling, has now been shown to result from IL-17 pathway activation and IL-17A inhibition is the most effective therapy known to treat psoriasis. Investigators propose that IL-17-targeting therapeutics will safely suppress the inflammation and possibly the other features of ichthyosis, improving quality of life. In this long-term, open-label extension, Investigators propose to treat adults with ichthyosis and at least moderate erythema with subcutaneously administered anti-IL-17 antibody (secukinumab) and to serially assess clinical response to this therapy and its safety.
The ichthyoses are a group of lifelong genetic disorders which share characteristics of generalized skin thickening, scaling and underlying cutaneous inflammation. There are no therapies based on growing understanding of what causes the disease. However, there have been recent discoveries of marked elevations in expression of interleukin-17A (IL-17A) and IL-17-related cytokines in the skin of individuals with ichthyosis, which may explain the inflammation. Investigators propose that IL-17-targeting therapeutics will safely suppress the inflammation and possibly the other features of ichthyosis, improving quality of life.