0s | So I do see your old eczema. |
2s | Yes. You know still have... |
4s | My patient came in with severe eczema |
5s | |
6s | It never went away, in fact it got worse over time. |
9s | Red, scaly, cracked, oozing skin |
12s | virtually from head to toe. |
14s | Couldn't go out and play as a child, |
15s | |
18s | Eczema affects anywhere from 10 to 20% |
20s | |
21s | It's a very, very common disease. |
23s | All therapies up to this point, |
24s | whether it's topical steroids or, uh, |
27s | other, newer drugs that are coming out |
29s | really try to suppress the immune system. |
31s | And that's been the traditional strategy. |
35s | But we've actually taken a very different approach. |
36s | And we thought why don't we actually try to boost |
39s | another part of the immune system, namely |
41s | Natural Killer cells, or NK cells, |
43s | which has really been shown to be very important in |
46s | |
48s | Well how did we make the link? |
49s | Patients with eczema actually have a lot of trouble |
52s | fighting off viral infections in the skin. |
54s | So the idea here was to really just boost NK cells |
57s | and then bring the immune system back in balance |
60s | And in fact that's what we did |
61s | and we showed in mice, definitively, |
62s | that this actually improves eczema. |
64s | So we think that this might be an alternative treatment |
67s | for patients with eczema in the clinic. |
70s | It's actually a short leap to take this into humans. |
73s | Um, so, really there are already drugs out there |
76s | |
77s | So we could either use one of those drugs, |
79s | or even design our own drug to boost this. |
82s | Every, literally every single day I'm, like, |
84s | 'Is it going to come back, is it going to come back?' |
86s | |
87s | I've been treating eczema for a very long time |
90s | and it wasn't until actually we were able to get patients |
92s | |
94s | especially those with severe disease, |
96s | that I came to recognize how much it was |
97s | Really affecting their lives. |
99s | Patients could finally get out in public for the first time, |
102s | go about doing the things that they always wanted to do, |
105s | that they were afraid to do. |