The National Rosacea Society (NRS) is awarding funding to three new studies and continuing funding for two ongoing studies on topics that include the impact of epigenetics on rosacea, the society announced.
The first study, by Dr. Luis Garza at John Hopkins University, Baltimore, will examine epigenetic lesions in rosacea. Epigenetics, the study of how DNA can be modified to act in certain ways, “may be responsible for why rosacea persists even though keratinocytes … slough off and are replaced every 2 months,” the NRS said in a written statement.
The second study, by Dr. Wenqing Li of Brown University, Providence, R.I., will use data from the Nurses’ Health Study II to examine how hormone use and hormone levels during menopause and pregnancy affect the risk of developing rosacea.
The third study, by Dr. Anna Di Nardo of the University of California, San Diego, and her associates, is looking at “whether the release of cathelicidin antimicrobial peptides, key players in the body’s normal innate immune system response, is central to the connection between the nervous system and skin inflammation through the activation of mast cells in rosacea,” the NRS statement noted.
Ongoing studies that also are receiving funding include work by Dr. Gideon Smith of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and his associates, who are examining the risk of vascular disorders in people with rosacea, and a study by Dr. Lori Lee Stohl of Cornell University, New York, who is researching how stress-related biochemicals can increase mast-cell count.
“Research supported by the NRS has led to important insights into the physiology of the disorder, providing an essential foundation for developing new and better treatments. In addition, our growing knowledge is now pointing toward potentially meaningful connections between rosacea and other systemic illnesses,” Dr. Martin Steinhoff, chairman of dermatology and director of the Charles Institute of Dermatology, University College, Dublin, and a member of the NRS Medical Advisory Board, said in the statement.
Find the full NRS statement on the society’s website.