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Rosacea is a chronic skin condition characterized by recurrent episodes of flushing, erythema, vasodilation, telangiectasia, edema, papules, pustules, hyperplasia, fibroplasia, itching, burning, pain, and skin tightness. Symptoms of rosacea are exacerbated by sun exposure, hot weather, immersion in hot water, high humidity, sweating, exercise, emotional stress, and spicy food. The skin condition usually begins between the ages of 30 to 50 and occurs more frequently in women than men. It currently affects an estimated 13 million Americans.
UCSD investigators have determined abnormal proteolytic processing of a skin peptide as a potential etiologic explanation for rosacea. This is the first time that rosacea has been linked to altered levels of expression of specific peptides, or their proteolytic enzymes, in skin. Skin of patients with rosacea expresses more of these specific peptides than normal facial skin. Rosacea skin contains peptides of unique mass that are absent from normal skin.
Product opportunities: A drug that targets specific peptide proteolysis could be much more effective for treatment of rosacea than existing treatments, which include antibiotics. One could treat rosacea by inhibiting specific peptide expression; or by inhibiting the enzyme that cleaves the specific peptide precursor. There are existing drugs approved for other diseases, which may be approvable for use in rosacea.
A diagnostic test for rosacea can be developed by identifying higher levels of these specific peptides, or the processed forms, in patients suspected of having rosacea, distinguishing it from other dermatological or autoimmune diseases. Currently, rosacea is only diagnosed by clinical symptoms and can be confused with other dermatological diseases such as acne. Preliminary diagnosis can be performed by quantitative immunoblot from tape-stripped skin, or definitively by mass spectrometry.
Patent pending.
Case No: SD2007-047
Inquiries To: invent@ucsd.edu
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