January science wrap up 2024

Welcome to 2024! The end of 2023 was such a blur. We spent the middle of December at the wedding of David (our 2nd eldest child) and his gorgeous wife, Brooke. The wedding was absolutely incredible. Back into 2024 and we started the year with the release of Hydraboost our Hyaluronic Acid Serum. I’ve been using it for a while now as the first step in my morning routine (before C Forte.) It’s been really hydrating and I’m loving it! And now it’s time to head back to school. So for our January science wrap, I thought I’d do a little deep dive into the latest acne studies!!

Stigma for acne sufferers- worse than you think!

Ok this is a bit devastating, especially to former pizza faces like me. It’s no surprise that there is a lot of stigma around acne. But the extent of that stigma- according to a survey of almost 1400 people published in the journal JAMA Dermatology is truly awful. Volunteers were shown photos of people with different skin types. People with acne were more likely to be rated untrustworthy, unattractive, unlikeable and dirty. The volunteers also rated those with acne as less deserving of friendship, dating or hiring! The worse the acne, the worse the stigma. And this was especially true in people with skin of colour. We need to be more compassionate - but we also need to get on top of acne!!!

What’s new in acne?

Lots of breakthroughs were reported from the 26th annual Mount Sinai Winter Symposium – Advances in Medical and Surgical Dermatology. It was held in New York in December last year (which seems for ever ago!!) Apart from the usual pleas from the academics not to keep taking antibiotics for acne (they’re not that effective, they disrupt your gut microbiome and they’re causing antibiotic resistance which is a problem for the world) some new research was presented. A broadband light device which basically heats and destroys the Cutibacterium Acnes bacteria had good results. A high spectrum laser (a 1726-nm laser) was shown to shrink oil glands and reduce oil production. Neither device based treatment caused pigmentation- a problem that is common with many lasers and other devices! 

A vaccine against acne?

We’re still in the mice phase but yes, scientists from University of California San Diego School of Medicine have created a vaccine to combat the inflammation in mice with acne! The scientists identified two specific proteins called HylA and HylB that are made by the Cutibacterium acnes. HylB reduces inflammation in mice with acne but HylA seems to make the skin over-react with an excess of inflammation. The scientists were able to prove that if you could get rid of HylA, acne reduced markedly. So they created a vaccine against this protein. Watch this space! Hopefully trials will be done in humans soon!