PHARAO

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a serious condition that affects up to 40% of people with psoriasis (PsO) - a common inflammatory skin diseaseimpacting over 40 million people worldwide. PsA causes joint damage leading to impairment and pain, which reduces quality of life and work ability. The disease creates a major burden on patients, families and healthcare systems. PsA usually develops between the ages of 30 and 50 and can affect men and women equally. Over the past two decades, new targeted treatments have transformed care for many patients with PsA. Medicines such as TNF inhibitors and IL-17 inhibitors can effectively reduce inflammation and prevent joint damage. However, up to 40% of patients do not respond well to these therapies. Doctors currently have no reliable way to predict who will benefit from which treatment, so finding the right one often involves months or years of trial and error. This delay can lead to ongoing pain, permanent joint damage, and increased healthcare costs. This project aims to change that by developing a way to match the right treatment to the right patient from the start, ideally after the patient received the diagnosis. Our goal is to discover biological markers that can predict how patients with PsA will respond to specific therapies. To achieve this, we will use collected blood samples from 600 patients with PsA. These samples are stored in a carefully managed biobank, ensuring high-quality, standardized information across all participants. Using state-of-the-art technologies, we will study several layers of biology including genetics as well as cellular and molecular features of patients. By integrating these data with patients clinical information and patient-reported outcomes such as standardized questionnaires, we aim to identify patterns that predict whether someone will respond to TNF or IL-17 inhibitor treatment. These findings will be used to build a computer-based algorithm that can help doctors choose the most effective treatment for each patient. We will also assess the potential cost savings and health benefits of this precision approach. In the long term, this research will bring us closer to personalized medicine in psoriatic arthritis, where treatment decisions are based on each persons unique biology. This will mean faster relief, fewer side effects, and better quality of life for people living with this challenging disease.