a `leave-on’ cleanser with antimicrobial peptides

Written by David Pascoe on March 11, 2006 in Cleansing Rosacea Skin with 0 Comments

Induction of antimicrobial peptides on human skin by a leave-on cleanser topical formulation

Michael Zasloff, MD, PhD, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Merion, PA, United States; Otto Mills, PhD, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, United States; Jens Schroeder, PhD, University of Kiel School of Medicine, Kiel, Germany; Thomas Stephens, PhD, Thomas Stephens Associates, Carrollton, TX, United States

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) protect the epithelial surfaces of all multicellular organisms from environmental microbes. Collectively AMPs exhibit activity against bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoa. In man the best studied antimicrobial peptides expressed on skin and its appendages are the defensins, the cathelicidin LL37, and the recently described AMP, psoriasin. Most of the known AMPs are inducible. Inducing agents include vitamin D, the amino acid isoleucine, short-chain fatty acids, and components of certain species of bacteria. In atopic dermatitis, expression of epidermal AMPs is inhibited and as a consequence, eczematous lesions frequently become infected with microbes such as S aureus. Last year we described the development of a topical formulation designed to induce epidermal expression of AMPs. The formulation contains isoleucine, propionic acid, and an acyl glucose amide surfactant. We report the results that demonstrate that this formulation can induce epidermal expression of psoriasin on the skin of normal human volunteers. Topical agents that can stimulate local expression of epidermal AMPs represent a novel class of skin care product.

Author disclosure: Drs Zasloff, Mills, and Stephens have an interest in Dermal Nurturing Technologies, Inc.

Supported by Dermal Nurturing Technologies, Inc.

Poster Discussion Session P406, American Academy of Dermatology, 64th Annual Meeting, March 3-7 2006, San Francisco.

Supplement to Journal of The American Academy of Dermatology, March 2006, Volume 54, Number 3.