[split] Dimethylfumarates and Psoriasis

[Caroline]

Hi Caroline,  I've just read a little about fumerites from your threads. I'm still a little confused about their function. Is it an immune suppresser like methotrexate?  I suppose I could look it up but you seem to know your stuff.  And I suppose they are. inexpensive too.  That is because I'm on the other side of the pond. Thanks so much

Hi Cory,
Most of what Dimethylfumarate (DMF) is, is described in Dimethylfumarates and Psoriasis.

In short, no it is totally different from methotrexate, that is just a chemo that bluntly suppresses your immune system.
Fumarates are an essential part of the energy cycle of your cells, so it is a body owned substance. Without this energy cycle your cells will die.
When you suffer from an auto immune disease like Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis, there are all kinds of messengers in your immune system that go berserk, they work too hard. The most known of them are the interleukins IL-23 and IL-17, but not limited to them.
When you add DMF into your system, this gets quickly transformed in your intestines to MonoMethylFumarate, which has the result that this energy cycle gets pumped up and the total effect of this together with probably other chemical reactions of MMF, will moderate those messengers in your immune system.
In all, your immune system comes back to rest, and starts working again at a normal level, but with a raised energy cycle.
The effect? Psoriasis and Arthretic Psoriasis will go down in their cages.

E.g. the biologicals Stelara and Cosentyx also target these interleukins, but in a different way, Cosentyx blocks the receptors on the cells that connect to IL-17, and thus stops the expression of Psoriatic Arthritis.

Hope this gives some light on DMF.

In detail it is even more complex, but I am not a medic or physician, so I cannot explain that.


Caroline