Background: Psoriasis is a frequent chronic inflammatory systemic disease. It is associated with changes in the microbiome, which may trigger psoriasis and influence the course of the disease.
Objective: Current methods for detection and the potential role of the microbiome in the pathogenesis of psoriasis are described.
Material and methods: A literature search was conducted using the databases Medline and PubMed as well as a general internet and book research.
Results: Both skin and gut microbiota are involved in the immunopathogenesis and may substantially modulate psoriasis. Antimicrobial peptides may serve as a link between the microbiome and the immunological mechanisms in psoriasis by regulating the microbiome at interfaces and can trigger psoriasis as antigens. Recent innovative methods, such as 16S rRNA next-generation sequencing significantly facilitate microbiome analysis.
Conclusion: The analysis of the microbiome in patients with psoriasis before, during and after treatment provides a basis for the identification of potential biomarkers for predicting individual treatment responses and facilitating the decision for a certain treatment.
Keywords: Anti-infective agents; Biomarkers; High-throughput nucleotide sequencing; Microbiome; Microbiota.