Sleep quality evaluation in pemphigus patients and its relationship with disease progression

• Grant number: 16/16703-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2016
• End date: October 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal Investigator: Monica Levy Andersen
• Grantee: Matheus Pedroni Negrão
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Pemphigus is an autoimmune bullous disease in which there is adhesion loss between skin and/or mucosa cells and development of blisters and erosions. Its inflammatory process is mediated by cytokines, inflammatory modulators that interact with sleep in a bidirectional pathway. Poor sleep quality is associated with an increased risk for autoimmune diseases, possibly due to reduced T regulatory cell activity. Insomnia is a comorbidity that has recently been associated with pemphigus. The skin lesions are usually painful, thus chronic pain can impair sleep quality of these patients. Therefore, the present study aims to evaluate sleep quality and its relationship with the disease progression in patients with pemphigus. For this purpose, adult individuals will be selected to the groups of pemphigus vulgaris (PV), pemphigus foliaceus (PF) and healthy individuals. After accepting the study's conditions, socioeconomic data will be collected along with subjective sleep quality, sleep disorders, cronotype, life quality and pain questionnaires. Pemphigus patients will go through clinical evaluation and will continue on the study in a prospective follow-up (without the control group), in which patients will be reevaluated after six months. All patients will continue on conventional pemphigus treatment during the study. Sleep quality will be compared between pemphigus patients and healthy individuals and among patients throughout the treatment. We expect to provide new information about sleep quality and its relationship with pemphigus clinical condition. These data may justify new therapeutic approaches considering the overlap between Sleep Medicine and Dermatology.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

PEDRONI, MATHEUS NEGRAO; HIROTSU, CAMILA; PORRO, ADRIANA MARIA; TUFIK, SERGIO; ANDERSEN, MONICA LEVY. The role of sleep in pemphigus: a review of mechanisms and perspectives. ARCHIVES OF DERMATOLOGICAL RESEARCH, v. 309, n. 8, p. 659-664, OCT 2017. (14/15259-2, 16/16703-9)