Identification of ZFP36L1 as an early-onset psoriasis risk gene demonstrates opposite associations with leprosy and psoriasis in the Chinese population.

The prevalence of psoriasis in a cohort of leprosy patients is 0.014% (20 cases of concurrent psoriasis in 145,661 leprosy patients), which is much lower than that in the world population. Kumar et al proposed that differences in genetic background are a possible explanation for this. Moreover, in 2012, Bassukas et al first proposed that the expansion of psoriasis-associated genotypes may have resulted from an evolutionary advantage in the form of selection pressure from historical leprosy epidemics in distinct human populations.