ABSTRACT
Psoriasis is a non-infectious chronic inflammatory skin disease. It′s acknowledged that interleukin (IL)-17 signaling pathway dominantly drives the development of psoriasis. Recently, the role of neuro-immune axis in psoriasis has attracted widespread attention. Lidocaine, a local anesthetic, has ability to block the conduction of nerve impulses, while its therapeutic efficacy on psoriasis remains to be confirmed. Here, we evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of topical application of compound lidocaine cream (LIDO) on imiquimod (IMQ)-induced mouse psoriasis model. Animal welfare and experimental procedures follow the regulations of the Ethics Committee of China Pharmaceutical University. The psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) scoring was used to evaluate the severity of psoriasis-like symptoms. Hematoxylin-eosin staining was used to examine histopathological changes and epidermal thickness was measured. Ki67 immunofluorescence staining was used to evaluate the proliferation of keratinocytes. The relative mRNA expression of inflammatory cytokines (including Il17, Il22, Il23 and Il36) in skin was measured by real-time quantitative PCR. Results show that IMQ-induced increases in the PASI score, epidermal thickness, number of Ki67+ cells and the mRNA expression of inflammatory cytokines are significantly alleviated by topical application of LIDO, whose therapeutic efficacy is also better than that of the positive control drug calcipotriol. Our study suggests that LIDO could be used for psoriasis treatment.