The use of infliximab in dermatology

Autoimmune diseases like Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriasis are often difficult to treat due to complex underlying immunologic pathways. Tumor necrosis factor (TNFalpha) is an important proinflammatory cytokine that seems to play an important role in the pathogenesis of these diseases. After the approval of a variety of drugs which block the biological activity of TNFalpha, new therapeutic options were available and especially infliximab became widely used. TNFalpha, as a member of the proinflammatory cytokine family, is a major cytokine in different inflammatory dermatological diseases such as cutaneous vasculitis, lupus erythematosus, eczema or psoriasis. Therefore infliximab has been used in a variety of inflammatory dermatoses lately, sometimes with great success. Several case reports showing new indications for a successful use of TNFalpha-inhibitors in dermatology have been published and will be reviewed in the following article. Nevertheless, infliximab is not approved for these indications at the moment and has to be considered as off-label use.