Skin-specific drug delivery: a rapid solution to skin diseases?
In this issue of The Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Kouno et al. achieve skin-specific drug delivery using an antibody to deliver substances in a highly specific manner to nontransformed cells. They make use of a nonpathogenic anti-desmoglein 3 autoantibody that had been derived from a patient with pemphigus vulgaris to deliver drugs to the surface of keratinocytes. This approach may turn out to be a new "magic bullet", thereby revolutionizing the therapy of skin disease. The authors then used a conjugate of this antibody with a new drug entity, TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand, to demonstrate, as a proof-of-principle, that their approach has the potential to facilitate the treatment of both cancerous and inflammatory skin diseases.
Department of Dermatology, Allergy, and Venereology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany. Christian.Sadik@uksh.de
Christian D
CD
Sadik
Detlef
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Zillikens
D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051184:Desmoglein 3 / Q000276:immunology*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D053221:TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; C071894:DSG3 protein, human; D051184:Desmoglein 3; D053221:TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand; C505653:TNFSF10 protein, human; C505654:Tnfsf10 protein, mouse