Scientists: Protein IL-17 fights infection, acts on the brain, inducing anxiety

Surprisingly enough, this partially exposes the link between depression and some of the autoimmunal diseases. One example is how patients with psoriasis have significantly elevated levels of proteins from the IL-17 family (namely, IL-17A, IL-17C, and IL-17F) - up to 4 to 8 times above nominal values.

At the same time, bimekizumab, one of the bleeding-edge psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis treatments, suppresses production of IL-17A and IL-17F (methotrexate does that, too, albeit to a much smaller degree). As a result, people receiving IL-17 suppressors become happier over the course of years, and not only due to months-long remission - I had a chance to see this in one of the experimental treatment programs.

Based on your knowledge and experiences, do you think the benefits are worth the potential side-effects?

I fully understand that after a certain point of disease severity, the right choices tend to become more apparent. However, I have been offered such medications in the past, but I have always refused.

From what I understand, many of the serious side-effects are rare. However, once Pandora is out of the box, it's not always easy to get her back inside.

Pedantic note: Pandora was the woman who opened the box. Pandora was not in the box. The problems of the world were, along with hope. Maybe you're mixing the story with the phrase "the cat's out of the box" ?