On Thursday morning, March 7, 2024, the Clinical Biochemistry Branch at the College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, discussed the doctoral thesis titled (Evaluating the levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 6, 10, 17, and 23, leptin, and lipid profile in obese psoriasis patients before and after using the drug apremilast), by student Haitham Muhammad Saad. The thesis was completed under the supervision of Professor Dr. Hala Ghazi Mahmoud, Professor Dr. Adel Abdul Ghafour Al-Nuaimi, and a discussion committee headed by Professor Dr. Basil Awaid Saleh, and the membership of Professor Dr. Muhammad Marouf Al-Ani, Assistant Professor Dr. Basman Medhat Fadil, Assistant Professor Dr. Shatha Muhammad Jawad, and Assistant Professor Dr. Zekra Hassan Mathok. The study aimed to know the suffering of psoriasis patients by studying the effect of apremilast treatment on tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 6, 10, 17, 23, leptin, and lipid profile in obese psoriasis patients before and after using apremilast. The study included enrolling a total of 30 participants, aged between 20-57 years, with their obesity status assessed monthly. The practical side of the study was conducted at Baghdad Teaching Hospital in the Baghdad Medical City Department. The researcher stated that the use of apremilast is an effective therapeutic option for treating psoriasis in patients suffering from obesity, as it significantly reduced inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-17, interleukin-23, and interleukin-6, which led to an improvement in psoriasis cases. It also increased the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10, which improves psoriasis through its anti-inflammatory effects. Apremilast treatment resulted in decreased triglycerides and increased high-density lipoprotein, yet increased total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein after six months of treatment, and resulted in a decrease in body mass index of 2.5 kg/m2. The researcher received a distinction after conducting a public discussion of his thesis, taking into account the use of scientific references and his defense of his thesis..
