Topical apigenin as a promising therapeutic agent for psoriasis: Evaluating efficacy alone and in combination with clobetasol in an imiquimod-induced model of psoriasis in mice

Abstract

Psoriasis is an immune-mediated skin disease characterized by excessive growth and abnormal differentiation of keratinocytes that were treated initially with steroids which showed severe side effects for long-term use, so, medicinal plants are being explored as a potential alternative to identify new and effective agents with fewer adverse effects, such as apigenin which is investigated alone and in combination with clobetasol in this study for their anti-psoriatic activity on imiquimod-induced psoriasis on sixty male Albino mice divided into 6 groups. Group I is the control group, while the rest of the groups were induced psoriasis by Imiquimod (IMQ) for 6 consecutive days and administered different interventions for each group for 8 consecutive days including topical apigenin and apigenin/clobetasol combination followed by a measurement of the clinical, histopathological, and laboratory effects and the findings demonstrated that apigenin effectively reduced the PASI score, enhanced the histopathology, downregulated the expression of TNF-α, IL-17, and VEGF, and significantly increased the IL10 level in mice’s skin tissue homogenate which indicate that Apigenin alone and in combination with clobetasol hold promise for the management of psoriasis, offering a potential alternative or adjunct to current therapeutic approaches.