Atopic dermatitis treatment: what's new on the horizon?

Abstract

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is an inflammatory disorder of the skin characterized by an impaired immune response and skin barrier function. It is very frequent in adult population being present in up to 10% of population. Quality of life is often reduced in AD patients due to disease burden and symptoms like itch. AD is also frequently associated with psychological diseases such as anxiety or depression. Due to its chronic nature and severity of presentation AD often may not respond to topical treatment and requires systemic treatments which can be associated with significant side effects. A Medline search of the last five years with the keywords "Atopic dermatitis" and "treatment" was performed. Moreover a search throughout the clinicaltrial.gov webpage was performed with the keyword AD. Several topical and systemic treatments are being studied in randomized controlled trials or in case series or in pivotal studies. The progression of the insight on AD pathogenesis have made possible to target single molecules responsible for key aspect of the development of this disease. We discuss the various molecules (small anti-inflammatory molecules, monoclonal antibodies against cytokines) that will be hopefully soon available for the treatment of this disease which still carries an important burden of unmet needs for its treatment.