Development of bullous pemphigoid during treatment of psoriasis with ustekinumab: a case report and literature review

Luyang Kong; Dawei Huang; Jiajing Lu; Yuexin Zhang; Ying Li; Xuemei Yi; Yuling Shi

doi:10.3389/fmed.2023.1171802

Development of bullous pemphigoid during treatment of psoriasis with ustekinumab: a case report and literature review

Front Med (Lausanne). 2023 May 3:10:1171802. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1171802. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Luyang Kong^#^{1

2}, Dawei Huang^#^{1

2}, Jiajing Lu^#^{1

2}, Yuexin Zhang^{1

2}, Ying Li^{1

2}, Xuemei Yi^{1

2}, Yuling Shi^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dermatology, Shanghai Skin Disease Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
² Institute of Psoriasis, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Ustekinumab is a biological therapy that has been approved for treating moderate-to-severe psoriasis. Although injection site reactions, nasopharyngitis, headaches, and infections are the common adverse events associated with ustekinumab, the development of bullous pemphigoid (BP) is also thought to be related to ustekinumab. Given that psoriasis itself can be complicated by BP, it is worthwhile to investigate the relationship between ustekinumab, psoriasis, and BP. Here we report a case of a male patient who developed BP twice after psoriasis treatment with ustekinumab. The patient's psoriasis and BP were brought under control by discontinuing ustekinumab and administering methotrexate, minocycline, and topical corticosteroids. Because of the increasing use of biologics in patients with psoriasis, BP should be considered a potential adverse event associated with ustekinumab.

Keywords: bullous pemphigoid; case report; psoriasis; treatment; ustekinumab.

Publication types

Case Reports

Grants and funding

This work was sponsored by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 82273510, 82073429, 82203913, and 82003335), Innovation Program of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (No. 2019-01-07-00-07-E00046), Clinical Research Plan of SHDC (No. SHDC2020CR1014B), and Program of Shanghai Academic Research Leader (No. 20XD1403300).