Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Dermatology / 01.02.2016
Topical Treatment On The Horizon For Common Warty Skin Growths
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Victor Allen Neel, MD, PhD
Director, Dermatologic Surgery
Massachusetts General Hospital
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Neel: Seborrheic keratoses (SKs) are the very common, warty brown skin lesions that are found on the face, chest and back of most people over forty. They affect every race and they increase in size and frequency with age. Although they are not dangerous, they can mimic dangerous conditions and are cosmetically unappealing. There is a high demand in the field of dermatology by both patients and physicians for a topical treatment. Currently there no FDA-approved drugs that have been shown to be effective at removing them.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?
Dr. Neel: Although seborrheic keratoses are the most common benign tumors in humans, very little was known about what causes them. Our paper was the first to study the biology of SKs in the laboratory, identify the key proteins controlling their abnormal growth and to pinpoint a potential treatment for commercial development.
We found that the enzyme called Akt was activated in seborrheic keratoses. Inhibiting this enzyme with a compound called A44 caused the SK cells to undergo "apoptosis," or programmed cell death. Normal skin cells were unaffected by A44.
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