Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disease that affects joints and other components of the musculoskeletal system, together with skin involvement in an estimated 1-2 % of the general population. The symptoms of the disease and the patient impact include impact on productivity (e.g. pain, joint stiffness and fatigue). For the EU, this translates into ~5 to 10 million people. Overall, it is increasingly recognised that PsA is associated with comorbidities, particularly those which promote the development of accelerated atherosclerosis and contribute to the observed increase in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. PsA most commonly develops on a background of established skin and/or nail psoriasis and it is characterised by a considerable heterogeneity with regards to clinical features, disease progression and response to targeted therapies and there are no good predictors of response to therapies. Future treatments will need to focus on earlier disease stages and be selected on the basis of detailed patient molecular profiling so as to limit poor long-term outcomes and possibly prevent the development of PsA altogether.
To this end, the HIPPOCRATES project will set up a single integrated database combining the cohorts and datasets of the most important European PsA studies and establish a Europe-wide library of relevant clinical biosamples. HIPPOCRATES will also establish a large (25,000), prospective, observational study of patients with psoriasis who will be recruited and followed on-line for development of PsA, with patient-centric blood sampling at defined intervals. Furthermore, the team of experts will evaluate and validate newly discovered biomarker signatures for the early diagnosis of PsA, for the identification of psoriasis patients at risk of developing PsA, for the identification of PsA patients at highest risk of damage progression and for personalised or stratified treatment strategies so as to maximise treatment response. Overall, HIPPOCRATES places particular emphasis on the involvement of patients, clinicians, primary care practitioners, regulators, SMEs (ATTUROS LIMITED, Oxford Biodynamics Limited and NEOTERYX LIMITED) and relevant large industry to meet the needs of all stakeholders and to maximise the project’s impact.
Study website: https://hippocrates-imi.eu/