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Grant support

This project was funded by the German Society of Dermatology (DDG, German Psoriasis Price to J.A.), the European Commission ("INNODERM" no. 687866 and "WINTHER" no. 871763 to V.N.), and the German Research Foundation (DFG, 435874434/A2 to T.B.).

Analysis of institutional authors

Aguirre, JCorresponding Author

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June 10, 2022
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Article
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Enabling precision monitoring of psoriasis treatment by optoacoustic mesoscopy

Publicated to:Science Translational Medicine. 14 (644): eabm8059- - 2022-05-11 14(644), DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abm8059

Authors: Hindelang, Benedikt; Nau, Teresa; Englert, Ludwig; Berezhnoi, Andrei; Lauffer, Felix; Darsow, Ulf; Biedermann, Tilo; Eyerich, Kilian; Aguirre, Juan; Ntziachristos, Vasilis

Affiliations

Helmholtz Zentrum Munich, Inst Biol & Med Imaging, D-85764 Neuherberg, Germany - Author
Tech Univ Munich, Chair Biol Imaging, D-81675 Munich, Germany - Author
Tech Univ Munich, Dept Dermatol & Allergy, D-81675 Munich, Germany - Author
Tech Univ Munich, Munich Inst Robot & Machine Intelligence MIRMI, D-81675 Munich, Germany - Author

Abstract

Psoriasis is a widespread inflammatory skin disease affecting about 2% of the general population. Recently, treatments that specifically target key proinflammatory cytokines driving the disease have been developed to complement conventional therapies with unspecific antiproliferative or anti-inflammatory effects. Efficient monitoring of treatment efficacy in the context of precision medicine and the assessment of new therapeutics require accurate noninvasive readouts of disease progression. However, characterization of psoriasis treatment remains subjective based on visual and palpatory clinical assessment of features observed on the skin surface. We hypothesized that optoacoustic (photoacoustic) mesoscopy could offer label-free assessment of inflammation biomarkers, extracted from three-dimensional (3D) high-resolution images of the human skin, not attainable by other noninvasive methods. We developed a second-generation ultra-broadband optoacoustic mesoscopy system, featuring sub10-Ltm resolution and advanced motion correction technology, and performed 80 longitudinal measurements of 20 psoriatic skin plaques in humans under conventional inpatient treatment or receiving biologics with concomitant topical corticosteroid treatment. Optoacoustic image analysis revealed inflammatory and morphological skin features that indicated treatment efficacy with sensitivity, accuracy, and precision that was not possible using clinical metrics. We identify 3D imaging biomarkers that reveal responses to treatment and offer the potential to facilitate disease and treatment characterization. Our findings suggest that optoacoustic mesoscopy may offer a method of choice for yielding both qualitative and quantitative evaluations of skin treatments that are inaccessible by other methods, potentially enabling optimized therapies and precision medicine in dermatology.

Keywords

FeaturesMechanismsOptical coherence tomographyPlaque psoriasisSkinUltrasound evaluation

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Science Translational Medicine due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position 2/136, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Medicine, Research & Experimental. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 5.07. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 4.77 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 14.58 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-19, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 22
  • Scopus: 21
  • Europe PMC: 14

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-19:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 23.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 25 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 26.6.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 17 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 2 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Germany.

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been AGUIRRE BUENO, JUAN.