Vaccine could cure the scourge of the teenager... acne

THE misery of acne could be wiped out with a simple jab, say scientists.

The vaccine destroys bacteria that trigger the spots – meaning they will not appear in the first place.

Experiments on mice and cells taken from humans’ skin were so successful plans are already afoot to try it on patients.

The condition blights the lives of millions of teenagers and young adults across the world. Developing a reliable treatment is considered a medical holy grail as the mental toll can even leave sufferers feeling suicidal.

Dermatologist Professor Chunming Huang, of the University of California, San Diego, said: “Once validated by a large-scale clinical trial, the potential impact of our findings is huge for the hundreds of millions of individuals suffering from acne vulgaris.

“Current treatment options are often not effective or tolerable for many of the 85 per cent of adolescents who suffer from this multi-factorial cutaneous inflammatory condition. New, safe, and efficient therapies are sorely needed.”

More than eight out of 10 teenagers suffer from spots, and the global market for acne medications is estimated at about £2 billion a year.

The therapy targets bugs called acne vulgaris that fuel the unsightly pimples to form.

Mr Huang is hopeful it will replace the drug Roaccutane that is prescribed to patients and can have serious side affects. It is based on the discovery of antibodies that attack toxins released by acne vulgaris, preventing inflammation.

The team described its breakthrough reported in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology as “significant”.

Rates of acne are rising across the world. It affects one in five women in Britain alone.

Although not life threatening, its psychological burden is high.

The spots mainly attack the face but can also break out on the neck, back and chest.

In rare cases they occur all over – a painful condition known as“whole body acne”.

Mr Huang said the acne vaccine could end the need for these creams and medications, the only current options.

It would be the first to target bacteria already in human skin, instead of invading bugs.

In lab tests his team found for the first time that the acne bacteria secrete a toxin called Camp which causes inflammation in the skin.

By employing antibodies against it, they stopped the spot-forming process in its tracks.

The study also provided a human model using acne biopsies, as there is not a fully satisfactory animal version for the condition.