Antipsoriatic natural products

Psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease, is characterized by abnormal differentiation and hyperproliferation of epidermal keratinocytes, inflammatory infiltration and increased skin vascularization. Despite their clinical efficacy, the current antipsoriatic drugs have a poor safety profile as they are responsible for a wide range of side effects such as skin irritation, teratogenicity, hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, myelosuppression and even disease rebound after cessation. Recent studies highlighted that natural products derived from plants and marine organisms contain scaffold structures that can be exploited for the development of novel antipsoriatic drugs. Pure constituents isolated from plants and marine sponges, belonging to different chemical classes: alkaloids, cyclopeptides, flavonoids, furanocoumarins, organic acid derivatives, polyphenols, sphingolipids and terpenoids, and their analogues have been investigated for their antipsoriatic activity in different experimental models. The chapter reviews natural products derived from plants and marine organisms and their analogues which, based on their bioactivities and virtual screening studies, appear to be potential candidates for the development of novel antipsoriatic drugs.