TRANSCRIPT
Researchers in Australia have discovered a new treatment for acne.
Acne is a skin condition that occurs when oil and dead skin cells clog hair follicles, resulting in symptoms including blackheads and painful pus filled pimples.
According to the Global Burden of Disease, the inflammatory condition, most common amongst teenagers and young adults aged 12 to 25 years old, affects around 800 million people worldwide.
Rodney Sinclair is a Professor of Dermatology at the University of Melbourne.
He says that acne is near universal amongst teenagers in Australia and that people with acne can experience distress and low self confidence.
"There's virtually not a single teenager in Australia, who gets through those adolescent years without developing acne to some degree. Acne in its mildest form is generally relatively easily managed and doesn't cause too much of a problem. But more severe, can be physically disfiguring. And that disfigurement can affect the way in which people interact socially the way they interact in school and the way they interact professionally."
Professor Sinclair adds that people from various cultural backgrounds may react to acne differently.
"There are certain genetic factors in acne and that can increase the risk amongst individuals but it does seem to affect pretty much all Australians of all ethnicities and all cultures. There are some differences in the way in which it affects the skin, in that people of colour will often in addition to the pimples get pigment changes in their skin in the healing phase of the acne."
A new study led by the University of South Australia has found a new antibiotic by repurposing a compound known as Narasin.
Narasin is an antibacterial and anti-fungal agent normally used in the livestock industry.
The research tested Narasin in the lab and found that it can stop acne bacteria from growing.
In the study, Narasin was encased in tiny, soft ultrafine particles, 50,000 times smaller than a single strand of human hair and applied in a gel form to targeted acne sites.
Lead author of the study, Fatima Abid says while there are various oral treatments prescribed for acne, they have a variety of negative after effects.
"There are many existing treatments available. However, they have got two major problems associated with that. So, one is a poor profile of long-lasting side effects, and the second issue is antibiotic resistance. So because of these reasons, we don't have enough pool of antibiotics left up, so once the existing antibiotics start becoming less effective, we don’t have a strong treatment option left."
Narasin has never been previously explored as a viable treatment for acne.
And Ms Abid says although it has not been tested on humans, research indicates it will be safe for use.
"We used a nano technology to entrap this drug Narasin inside those nanoparticles. And this way we are controlling any unnecessary side effects because we can localise these nanoparticles within different skin there, so it does not go beyond the target site. So, for this reason, we are confident that hopefully it couldn't have any serious side effects as compared to the existing treatment and it’s a topical formulation, so it’s a topical gel. We are not using it as an oral antibiotic."
Ms Abid believes that the inability of several topical medications to penetrate hair follicles in acne spots, has seen the development of new antibacterial therapies that are both effective and safe.
She says the next stage of the study will include clinical tests.
Researcher in pharmaceutics and skin drug delivery at the University of Queensland, Yousuf Mohammed says the treatment is promising.
"Acne is a huge problem and has implications beyond cosmetic and sociological, I think finding something that’s promising is fantastic. The compounds that they have used Narasin is bacterially derived, so a lot of the different adverse chemical compounds might have, it doesn't have or it has less of. And also, the novel drug delivery system that they have used which is like nano-micelle solid dispersion is completely novel and I think apart from just the combination being novel, delivery route itself is quite a neat way of doing it."
And Professor Sinclair says there should be better access to already existing treatments.
"There are already highly effective treatments directly for acne. Many of them can be described by a general practitioner. Some of them require prescription from a specialist dermatologist and we do have a problem with equity of access to these treatments, because of the access to specialist dermatologist, particularly for rural Australians."
