Skin-deep Target

There are at least a dozen approved drugs for eczema, but none for long-term or continuous treatment of the condition. First-line drugs such as corticosteroids cannot be used for more than a few consecutive weeks because of potential skin thinning. Second-line treatments such as topical calcineurin inhibitors carry black-box warnings of an increased cancer risk.

Now, U.S. researchers have found a new target for atopic dermatitis-thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP).¹ Allergy researchers contacted by SciBX agreed that inhibition of TSLP may be a potential new strategy to treat atopic dermatitis and other atopic allergic diseases. Indeed, recent papers have elucidated a role for TSLP in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)² and have suggested a broader role for the protein in regulating inflammatory and allergic responses.^3,4...