Pakistani doctor among pioneers of research on atopic dermatitis

Study shows body’s natural defences could be used to treat AD

Islamabad

 A team of scientists working in Scotland’s Edinburgh University has conducted groundbreaking research that could pave the way, not only for discovery of new treatments for Atopic Dermatitis (AD) but also for prevention of the chronic skin disease. While this is big news itself, it is particularly heartening to know that one of the research members of this team is a Pakistani national by the name of Dr. Ayub Qureshi.

“It feels great to have been part of the nine-member research team, but we still have to invest a lot of efforts to achieve the goal,” Dr. Ayub stated Sunday during a telephonic interview with this scribe from the United States. Dr. Ayub got admission at Edinburgh University in 2009. “I worked in the laboratory 24/7 till the end of 2012, and then moved to the United States to write my thesis,” he shared. He is currently associated with Fatima Paediatric Medical Care, New York.

The research study, which is being widely publicised in the international media, was led by Dr. Donald J. Davidson, an inflammation biologist and senior non-clinical fellow at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Inflammation Research (CIR) at the University of Edinburgh. The study shows that the body’s natural defences could be used to treat AD.

It is important to know that people suffering from AD lack a naturally occurring protective substance, which according to the study, can be produced by passing on instructions to skin cells.

“Patients suffering from AD exhibit increased susceptibility to viral and microbial infections, especially Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus); 90 per cent of the AD patients are carriers for it. These patients are known to have a skin barrier defect. I, for the first time, proposed that S. aureus bacterial secreted proteases could break the skin barrier. I further demonstrated that Human Beta Defensing (hBD2), a natural defence protein secreted by human skin cells, could act as an anti-protease that inhibits S. aureus bacterial secreted proteases and protects the skin barrier,” Dr. Ayub explained.

Dr. Ayub further said, “Since S. aureus is becoming resistant to different kinds of antibiotics, my goal is to use hBD2 for resistant bacterial infection while also utilizing the novel anti-protease action.” He shared that AD, which is also known as atopic eczema, affects 1 in 5 children and 1 in 20 adults in the United Kingdom. The condition is defined as an inflammation of the skin. It causes rashes, dryness, redness, and itchy lesions that can trigger cracking of the skin.