Janus-kinase Inhibitors in Pathogenesis and Management of Chronic Urticaria: A Review of the Literature

Chronic urticaria is a long-lasting condition, sometimes with serious comorbidities, severely affecting the quality of life, which makes the patients seek efficient therapies to achieve sustained remissions. The complex nature of urticaria greatly complicates the patients’ responses to appropriate treatments. 

This review was conducted to focus on the Janus kinase (JAK) pathway, evaluate its role as a new biomarker, and discover the efficacy of its inhibitors as novel therapeutic agents in the treatment of refractory chronic urticaria.

Electronic databases of PubMed and SCOPUS were searched to find and evaluate all the reports describing “Janus kinase,” “JAK-STAT pathway,” “chronic urticaria,” “JAK inhibitors,” and “pruritus.” Because itching is the most annoying symptom of chronic urticaria and due to the scarcity of articles conducted on the use of JAK inhibitors in the treatment of this disease, we also reviewed quite a few articles performed on applying JAK inhibitors in the treatment of dermatologic disorders and also pruritus in atopic dermatitis.

From the initially retrieved articles, only five were exclusively about the use of JAK inhibitors in the treatment of chronic urticaria.

Although JAK inhibitors are widely known as effective therapies in the treatment of some dermatological diseases, we found out that there are not currently sufficient eligible studies confirming the role of JAK inhibitors in the treatment of chronic urticaria. There is therefore a need for more studies regarding the efficacy and safety of these medications in the treatment of refractory chronic urticaria.