NRS (was Re: Re: IMPACs)

[Guest guest]

Thanks for this info. Is anyone else getting a little disappointed with the

NRS grant programs? I mean most of their funding comes from us (right?)..

but it barely seems like they have cea in mind when they conduct these

studies... I mean this is their second year studying VEGF and their work

still does not directly relate to cea??? The grant this time was to

study whether or not inhibiting tnf-(Alpha) would reduce cea.. And Dr.

Lerner's Nitric Oxide grant.. well.. its already been said several times

that the main focus of this research is NOT rosacea.. (and I've often

wondered if this is why he was unable to get any conclusive data about

whether or not NOIs work or even whether or not Nitric Oxide is definitely

involved in cea) And in all the years they've done these studies (I

think four years?) have they made the results from a single study available

to the public?

I really want to help stimulate cea research in some way.. since there

is definitely not enough of it going on (it almost seems like there isnt ANY

going on) but at this point I don't really feel comfortable donating my

money to the NRS.. it seems like it will be wasted.

Re: IMPACs

> Group,

>

> While at this years Society for Investigative Dermatology meeting

> last month in Los Angeles, I went to a satellite symposium held by

> the National cea Society. It was mainly a forum for the awardees

> of their grants to show the results of their studies. Dr. Lynn Drake

> (Now at Harvard in Derm) gave a 45 minute introductory talk about a

> consortium that was convened to BEGIN to come up with a standardized

> method of IDENTIFYING cea in the clinic. It seems as though there

> is a bit of " difference of opinion " on the diagnosis of cea among

> Dermatologists and the consortium was brought together to set

> standards. The outcome of that has been published as a special report

> by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (J Am Acad Derm

> 2002;46:584-7) entitled, " Standard classification of rosacea: Report

> of the National cea Society Expert Committee on the

> Classification and Staging of cea " . I attended this minisymposium

> and it was apparent from some of the discussion (Dr. Al Kligman

> generated much discussion) that there still is no consensus across

> Dermatologists as to what cea actually is. Perhaps the biggest

> point of contention was that in most of the studies currently being

> performed to look at new treatments, the criterion for election into

> the study is that the patient must have papules and pustules in

> addition to the flushing. Dr. Kligman's opinion is that these

> patients only comprised a small portion of the total rosacea

> population (meaning many rosacea sufferers may have the flushing

> w/out papule and pustule involvement)and that the study results are

> inherently skewed. I tend to agree.

>

> Regarding Adam's question about TNF-alpha and VEGF, the only paper

> presented was by Marita Kosmadaki, a research fellow at Boston Univ.

> The research (funded by the NRS) showed that UV-induces VEGF through

> a TNF-alpha independent pathway. The work did not relate specifically

> to rosacea, but to the mechanism by which UV induces VEGF. They did

> draw some parallels and implications for rosacea, but no direct link

> was demonstrated. As far as clinical data was concerned, none was

> presented.

>

> Pilcher

>

>

> > I looked into the IMPACs I mentioned in my last post a little bit

> > more. I found some info on two of them that seemed interesting.

> >

> > The first is called CMT-8. It has been shown to inhibit

> > TNF-(alpha). TNF-(alpha) makes the skin more receptive to VEGF,

> > and in the Fall of 2001, the NRS began a study to see if

> > inhibiting TNF-(alpha) might inhibit cea development. I'm

> > not sure if the study is finished yet. I guess I would assume

> > that if it is, and we haven't heard anything, that it was a

> > bust.. but.. this is their second year studying VEGF so obviously

> > they found something promising about it the first time... so..

> > hopefully the study just isnt finished yet..

> >

> > It also reduces blood levels of serum fructosamine, prostaglandin

> > E2 and nitric oxide. This was all done at concentrations which

> > could be delivered without toxicity in animal models. I think

> > these are very early on in development and so far have only been

> > tested in rats.

> >

> > The other was CMT-3 which inhibits the invasion of Candida

> > albicans

> >

> >

> >