Acne vaccine clinical trials could start soon

A dermatology professor is hoping to start clinical trials for an acne vaccine developed over the past five years.

Acne can result in inflammatory lesions – the lumps and bumps on the skin – that are linked to skin bacteria known as P. acnes. 

Dr Eric Huang from the University of California, San Diego has been working on a vaccine to educate the immune system of acne patients to allow their body to naturally control the growth of P. acnes.  

“We couldn’t create a vaccine for the bacteria because, in some ways, P.acnes are good for you,” Dr Huang told a beauty magazine.

Instead, Dr Huang’s team is targeting a molecule (CAMP) in P. acnes, which leads to acne, and which the body cannot typically neutralise.  This means the vaccine is designed to kill the acne-causing component of P. acnes only.

Lab research in mice and human acne tissues has shown the vaccine is effective but this is only preliminary work.  The next step is testing the vaccine on patients in clinical trials

Reference: UC San Diego School of Medicine