Microscopic STAR particles offer

new potential treatment for skin

diseases(https://medicalxpress.com
/news/2020-03-microscopic-star-
particles-potential-treatment.html)
by Georgia Institute of Technology

In a study to be published on March 9, 2020, in the journal Nature Medicine,

Prausnitz and his team of researchers report on research using a skin cream infused
with microscopic particles, named STAR particles. To the naked eye, STAR particles
look like a powder, but closer inspection reveals tiny microneedle projections sticking
out from the particles like a microscopic star. A particle-containing cream could
potentially facilitate better treatment of skin diseases including psoriasis, warts, and
certain types of skin cancer.

"Andrew [Tadros] and I teamed up to adapt the microneedle technology and make it
useful, especially in dermatology," said Prausnitz, Regents Professor and J. Erskine
Love Jr. Chair in the Georgia Tech School of Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering. "Microneedle patches are good at administering drugs or vaccines to a
small area of skin, but many dermatological conditions are spread over larger areas.
Rather than trying to make really big patches, which would be difficult to use, we
ultimately arrived at STAR particles that can be rubbed on the skin—just like any skin
lotion—and poke tiny holes in the skin to better deliver drugs."

More effectively delivering medicine directly to where it's needed could improve
treatments for patients dealing with many kinds of skin diseases. Oral methotrexate
is a common course of treatment for psoriasis—a dermatological condition in which
skin cells build up and form scales and itchy, dry patches—but because the therapy
is systemic, it exposes the whole body to a drug that can cause serious side effects
like diarrhea, hair loss, and liver problems.

Prausnitz said doctors must weigh the costs of exposing the whole body to a drug
versus treating psoriasis topically, which may be less effective. That's where STAR
particles could provide value.
Biologics(https://www.webmd.com/ski
n-problems-and-
treatments/psoriasis/research)
They're medicines made from substances found in living things.
Doctors inject these lab-made proteins or antibodies into your skin
or bloodstream. Once inside the body, the drug blocks part of your
altered immune system that adds to psoriasis.
In general, biologics work on psoriasis because they:

 Curb T cells (a form of white blood cell)

 Block a substance called tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-
alpha), one of the main messenger chemicals in the immune
system
 Stop a family of your immune system's chemical messengers
called interleukins
 Bind to proteins that cause inflammation

The patches and plaques of psoriasis come after an interaction

between your skin cells and white blood cells. Biologics interfere
with TNF-alpha or T cells, or they target interleukins. This short-
circuits that unhealthy link. This will ease your inflammation. You'll
have less growth of thick, scaly skin, too.
Biologic medicines approved by the FDA to treat moderate to
severe psoriasis include:

 Adalimumab (Humira), a TNF-alpha-blocking antibody

 Ustekinumab (Stelara), a human antibody against

interleukins

Biologics are good at treating psoriasis. In clinical trials, each of

the drugs lowered psoriasis activity by at least 75% in many
people.
There are some drawbacks, though. Biologics can be expensive.
Though they're safe for most people, they could raise your chances
of infection, cancer, and other complications. Your doctor will need
to keep close tabs on you to make sure you stay healthy.

"Based on our studies, you could feasibly combine methotrexate with STAR particles
into a cream and localize the therapy where it is needed," Tadros said. "The STAR
particles in the cream would enable drugs to get into skin and treat diseases locally,
right where it needs to be treated, and without exposing the whole body to the drug."

"Titanium dioxide is a common material that we have adapted to make STAR

particles," said Prausnitz. "The material is well established, but it's the star-shaped
geometry of the particle that's new."

Artificial Intelligence
(https://medicalfuturist.com/future-of-dermatology/)

 At the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, experts found that their deep

learning system was able to achieve a 76% accuracy at diagnosing

melanoma cases based on dermatology images, while the average accuracy

for the eight dermatologists on that data set was 70.5%. It is a very promising

result!

Researchers at Stanford University carried out a similar experiment. They

created an artificially intelligent diagnosis algorithm for skin cancer with the

help of an algorithm developed by Google that was already trained to identify

1.28 million images from 1,000 object categories. Then, they made a

database of nearly 130,000 skin disease images representing over 2,000

different diseases; and trained their algorithm to visually diagnose potential

cancer. From the very first test, it performed with inspiring accuracy. It

performed at least as well as dermatologists participating in the research

which is very impressive! Now, the team is considering to make the algorithm

smartphone compatible in the near future, bringing reliable skin cancer

diagnoses to our fingertips. Mind-blowing innovation in sight!

5) 3D Printing

The answer for organ shortages of all kinds, including skin, as well as to the

increasing reluctance to test new cosmetic, chemical, and pharmaceutical

products on animals, is 3D printing. Many innovators recognized it already

and plenty of research is going on. Scientists at the Spanish Universidad

Carlos III de Madrid in collaboration with the bioengineering firm BioDan

Group have presented a prototype for a 3D bioprinter that can create an

entirely functional human skin. James Yoo and his team at the Wake Forest

School of Medicine in the US has also developed a similar prototype that can

create synthetic skin. San Diego-based bioprinting firm Organovo teamed up

with cosmetics giant L’Oréal in 2015 to supply 3D-printed skin.

3. AI can detect skin cancer better than a doctor

(https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/healthcare-
technology-precision-medicine-breakthroughs/)

Melanoma skin cancers are not easily identifiable by sight and highly
trained clinicians may sometimes get it wrong.

A computer trained using images of skin cancer and the

corresponding diagnoses achieved a 95% detection rate, well above
the 87% success rate of human doctors, according to
research published in the Annals of Oncology.

Between 2 and 3 million non-melanoma skin cancers and 132,000

melanoma skin cancers occur globally each year, according to
the World Health Organization. “One in every three cancers
diagnosed is a skin cancer and, according to Skin Cancer Foundation
Statistics, one in every five Americans will develop skin cancer in
their lifetime,” the WHO says.
 "Through its ability to sift through large
amounts of information… AI can help
health professionals with complex
decision-making, and point out clinical
nuances that they might have missed."

University of British Columbia researchers have developed a specialized

microscope that has the potential ability to both diagnose diseases that
include skin cancer and perform incredibly precise surgery -- all without
cutting skin.

"Our technology allows us to scan tissue quickly, and when we see a suspicious or abnormal cell
structure, we can perform ultra-precise surgery and selectively treat the unwanted or diseased
structure within the tissue -- without cutting into the skin," said Yimei Huang, co-lead author of
the study and a former postdoctoral fellow at the department of dermatology and skin science at
UBC and BC Cancer.

New artificial intelligence system can empower medical

professionals in diagnosing skin diseases
(https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200331092704
.htm)

Date: March 31, 2020

Researchers in Korea have developed a deep learning-based artificial intelligence (AI)
algorithm that can accurately classify cutaneous skin disorders, predict malignancy,
suggest primary treatment options, and serve as an ancillary tool to enhance the
diagnostic accuracy of clinicians. With the assistance of this system, the diagnostic
accuracy of dermatologists as well as the general public was significantly improved. This
novel study is reported in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

Skin diseases are common, but it is not always easy to visit a dermatologist quickly or distinguish malignant from
benign conditions. "Recently, there have been remarkable advances in the use of AI in medicine. For specific
problems, such as distinguishing between melanoma and nevi, AI has shown results comparable to those of human
dermatologists. However, for these systems to be practically useful, their performance needs to be tested in an
environment similar to real practice, which requires not only classifying malignant versus benign lesion, but also
distinguishing skin cancer from numerous other skin disorders including inflammatory and infectious conditions,"
explained lead investigator Jung-Im Na, MD, PhD, Department of Dermatology, Seoul National University, Seoul,
Korea.
Using a "convolutional neural network," a specialized AI algorithm, investigators developed an AI system capable of
predicting malignancy, suggesting treatment options, and classifying skin disorders. Investigators collected 220,000
images of Asians and Caucasians with 174 skin diseases and trained neural networks to interpret those images.
They found that the algorithm could diagnose 134 skin disorders and suggest primary treatment options, render
multi-class classification among disorders, and enhance the performance of medical professionals through
Augmented Intelligence. Most prior studies have been limited to specific binary tasks, such as differentiating
melanoma from nevi.