WORLD / Health
Experts uncover clue in rosacea progress
(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-06 16:50
WASHINGTON -- Their cheeks glow red for no apparent reason, the condition
comes and goes and can worsen over time. It is almost like acne, but
generally affects people age 30 to 60.
Researchers now believe they have found a key mechanism that drives
rosacea, a possible clue that could point the way to a future treatment
for the condition that affects 14 million people in the United States.
Overproduction of two inflammatory proteins results in excessive levels
of a third protein that leads to rosacea symptoms, a research team
reported in Sunday's online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.
The team found that small proteins called anti-microbial peptides caused
the same skin symptoms that are seen in rosacea. The peptides are part of
the body's immune system.
"When we then looked at patients with the disease, every one of them had
far more peptides than normal," Dr. Richard L. Gallo, chief of the
division of dermatology at the University of California, San Diego School
of Medicine, said in a statement.
Gallo, who led the research team, also is part of the dermatology section
of the Veterans Affairs' San Diego Healthcare System.
A precursor form of these peptides known as cathelicidin normally helps
protect the skin from infection. Indeed, some skin problems occur when
there is too little cathelicidin.
But it turned out that people with rosacea had too much cathelicidin, and
it was different from the form in people without the illness.
Rosacea patients also had high levels of stratum corneum tryptic enzymes
(SCTE), the precursor of the disease-causing peptide.
"Too much SCTE and too much cathelicidin leads to the abnormal peptides
that cause the symptoms of this disease," said Gallo.
To Dr. Jonathan Wilkin, head of the National Rosacea Society medical
advisory board, "It's not that he's gone all the way back and discovered
what the cause (of rosacea) is, but the role of cathelicidin in the
engine that makes rosacea progressive, that is key."
That finding gives the option for testing to see if there are targets
that can reduce the inflammation, Wilkin said in a telephone interview.
That may suggest targets for an eventual drug therapy.
Antibiotics sometimes have been used to treat rosacea on the theory it
might be caused by bacteria.
Antibiotics tend to alleviate the symptoms of rosacea in patients because
some of them work to inhibit these enzymes, Gallo said. "Our findings may
modify the therapeutic approach to treating rosacea, since bacteria
aren't the right target."
Wilkin, who was not part of the research team, noted that the most
effective antibiotics have been those that also have anti-inflammatory
effects.
Gallo's research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the
Rosacea Society and the Association for Preventive Medicine of Japan.
___
On the Net:
Nature Medicine: http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine
National Rosacea Society: http://www.rosacea.org
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