Peptide T improves psoriasis when infused into lesions in nanogram amounts.

Abstract

In each of 14 patients, two small but comparable psoriatic lesions were infused for 2 weeks with either saline or a saline solution of peptide T (as its analog D-ala1-peptide T amide) at 10(-7) mol/L with Alzet osmotic pumps worn extracorporeally. During infusion, lesions were photographed and scored for clinical features of psoriasis on a 9-point scale. After another 7 days, biopsy specimens were taken from the infused sites, and sections were scored for features of psoriasis on a 19-point scale. The differences between means for data from saline- and peptide T-infused lesions were evaluated statistically. Peptide T-infused lesions improved clinically; scores decreased from a mean of 4.35 initially to 1.57 at biopsy, whereas control lesions changed from 4.43 to 3.57 (p less than 0.01 for 1.57 vs 3.57). Histologic scores were also significantly different (5.28 for peptide T vs 10.00 for controls, 0.05 greater than p greater than 0.02). This study provides evidence that intralesionally infused peptide T demonstrates some clearing effect in psoriasis.