Rain forest tree gives new hope for psoriasis sufferers

A team of scientists at University of Newcastle upon Tyne have discovered that an ointment, dithranol, used to soothe psoriasis actually kills the cells that cause the problem.

Dithranol is a compound derived from the araroba tree found in the rain forests of the Amazon.

They believe the discovery will pave the way towards better treatments for the UK's one million sufferers, and gives new hope to patients suffering from the irritating genetic skin condition.

The team which was led by Professor Nick Reynolds and Dr Mark Birch-Machin, of the skin research group, say though the drug is currently only used in hospitals for severe cases of the disease, he and his team are now hoping that more effective ways of administering the drug will be found.

If misused the ointment can cause burning and discolour clothing.

Prof Reynolds says presently most people suffering an episode of psoriasis that requires treatment with dithranol have to either attend hospital as an outpatient five days a week, or be admitted for a three-week period, and this is far from ideal.

He says these findings represent an important step towards the development of better-designed treatments for psoriasis sufferers.

Psoriasis is a genetic condition which, when triggered by certain factors such as injury or throat infection, leads to an over-production of skin cells called keratinocytes which cause a thickening of the skin, resulting in the raised red, scaly patches of psoriasis.

Many sufferers say that the condition has deeply affected their lives.

One such sufferer, John Young said his psoriasis has "devastated" his whole life. He was bullied as a child and even adults in hospital have said he looked like a leper

Famous British playwright Dennis Potter was a sufferer, and his television play, the Singing Detective, in which Michael Gambon starred, clearly depicted, in an interesting and often humorous way, the sometimes awful plight of the sufferers.