Current perspectives and future directions in the management of chronic spontaneous urticaria and their link to disease pathogenesis and biomarkers.

Abstract

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is a relatively common, persistent, debilitating inflammatory skin disorder, having a global point prevalence ~0.5-1%. This disorder considerably worsens the patient's quality of life, and also poses a burden for the society. It is primarily an IgE mediated mast cell disorder, histamine being the principal mediator. So, the current treatment recommendations are aimed at antagonizing the effect of histamine, block mast cell activation by reducing IgE, or immunomodulate the inflammatory response. However, almost one in five CSU patients remain uncontrolled with the current safe treatments comprising antihistamines and add-on anti-IgE omalizumab. Thus, newer and more targeted therapeutic strategies are needed to overcome this unmet need, based on the various interlinked ligands and receptors involved in disease pathogenesis. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the pathogenesis of CSU, beyond the IgE-FceR1-mast cell axis, which has enabled the development of newer and more targeted promising therapeutic strategies. Several biomarkers are also being evaluated which would better define the disease characteristics and foretell treatment outcome even before its initiation. This would enable specific and targeted precision therapy based on disease characteristics, with better effectiveness-safety ratio. The present article discusses the current understanding about CSU, and recent up-to-date perspectives pertaining to disease pathogenesis, emerging treatments, and their link to biomarkers. These authors hope that the article would be helpful for all specialists and CSU treating physicians, in providing optimum care to their patients, based on latest evidence and concepts.