Case Report: Type 2 Leprosy Reaction Mimicking Sweet Syndrome: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Type 2 leprosy reaction is a type of acute inflammation that predominantly affects borderline lepromatous leprosy and lepromatous leprosy patients and occurs before, during, or after therapy. The atypical variant, which resembles Sweet syndrome, could easily lead to misdiagnosis. Here, we report a case of a 52-year-old man who presented with type 2 leprosy reaction that mimicked Sweet syndrome. In addition, we review published cases and summarize their features to raise awareness of this atypical variant to enable improved diagnosis and management.

Application and Comparison of Dermoscopy and Reflectance Confocal Microscopy in the Target Treatment of Genital Lichen Sclerosus: A Single-Arm Prospective Study.

INTRODUCTION: The treatment of genital lichen sclerosus (GLS) remains challenging. Baricitinib has been introduced in the treatment of GLS, but there's no imaging evaluation for GLS patients treated with it. No comparison of dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) assessments in GLS has been conducted. We performed this study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of baricitinib for GLS and to compare the value of dermoscopy and RCM assessments in GLS. METHODS: Participants were treated with baricitinib for 6 months and assessed at week 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and every 4 weeks for the next 16 weeks. All patients were evaluated for clinical, dermoscopic, and RCM variables, with numeric scores assigned to each parameter. RESULTS: Twenty-six GLS patients were included in this study. All patients achieved Investigator's Global Assessment score ≤ 1 (with ≥ 2-grade improvement) at week 20. The scores of pruritus and pain decreased since week 2 (both P < 0.05). The DLQI and VQLI scores significantly decreased since week 4 (both P < 0.0001). White structureless areas improved at week 2 and white shiny streaks and follicular plugs improved at week 4 under dermoscopic examination. Vessels (P < 0.001) and brown structureless areas (P = 0.003) increased at week 8. In RCM, inflammatory cells count significantly decreased at week 2 (100.03 ± 33.24, P < 0.0001), with substantial regression at week 8 (16.98 ± 5.54, P < 0.0001). Epidermal thickness increased at week 12 (157.44 ± 37.87 µm versus 134.13 ± 36.60 µm, P = 0.0284). Irregular papillae, spongiosis, and fiber structures improved at week 20, week 4, and week 6 (all P < 0.01). Transient hypercholesterolemia (11.54%), thrombocytosis (7.69%), and elevated alanine aminotransferase (7.69%) occurred during treatment. CONCLUSION: Both dermoscopy and RCM can be useful and non-invasive adjuvant tools for the evaluation and therapeutic monitoring of GLS. We recommended white structureless areas under dermoscopy and inflammatory cells count under RCM as variables for dermatologic imaging evaluation for GLS. Baricitinib is effective and safe for GLS, while randomized controlled trials are warranted.

Tremella fuciformis polysaccharides alleviates UV-provoked skin cell damage via regulation of thioredoxin interacting protein and thioredoxin reductase 2.

INTRODUCTION: Skin is exposed to a wide range of environmental risk factors including ultraviolet (UV) and all kinds of pollutants. Excessive UV exposure contributes to many disorders, such as photoaging, skin inflammation, and carcinogenesis. Previous studies have shown that Tremella fuciformis polysaccharides (TFPS) have protective effects on oxidative stress in cells, but the specific protective mechanism has not been clarified. METHODS: To determine the effects of TFPS on UV-irritated human skin, we conducted a variety of studies, including Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), trypan blue, Western blot, apoptosis assays, reactive oxygen species (ROS) detection in primary skin keratinocytes, and chronic UV-irradiated mouse model. RESULTS: We first determined that TFPS protects human skin keratinocytes against UV radiation-induced apoptosis and ROS production. Moreover, TFPS regulates thioredoxin interacting protein (TXNIP) and thioredoxin reductase 2 (TXNRD2) levels in primary skin keratinocytes for photoprotection. Last, we found that topical TFPS treatment could alleviate the UV-induced skin damage in chronic UV-irradiated mouse model. CONCLUSION: Collectively, our work indicates the beneficial role of TFPS in UV-induced skin cell damage and provides a novel therapeutic reagent to prevent or alleviate the progress of photoaging and other UV-provoked skin diseases.

Thioredoxin domain-containing protein 9 protects cells against UV-B-provoked apoptosis via NF-κB/p65 activation in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), a type of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC), is the most common malignancy worldwide. Thioredoxin (TXN) domain-containing protein 9 (TXNDC9) is a member of the TXN family that is important in cell differentiation. However, the biological function of this protein in cancer, particularly cSCC, is still unknown. In the present study, our experiments revealed the protective effects of TXNDC9 on UV-B-irritated cSCC cells. The initial findings showed that TXNDC9 is significantly upregulated in cSCC tissue and cells compared to normal skin tissue and keratinocytes. UV-B radiation robustly induces the expression of TXNDC9, and UV-B-induced cSCC cell death is boosted by TXNDC9 deficiency. Moreover, cSCC cells lacking TXNDC9 displayed attenuated activation of the NF-κB pathway. Additional studies by inhibiting TXNDC9 confirmed this finding, as TXNDC9 deficiency attenuated UV-B radiation-induced translocation of NF-κB p65 from the cytoplasm to the nucleus of cSCC. In conclusion, our work demonstrates the biological roles of TXNDC9 in cSCC progression and may provide a novel therapeutic target to treat cSCC in the future.

APOA4 as a novel predictor of prognosis in Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis: A proteomics analysis from two prospective cohorts.

BACKGROUND: Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are rare but life-threatening adverse drug reactions. Conventional systemic therapies are of limited efficacy and often exhibit strong side effects. OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy and safety of the combination treatment with a tumor necrosis factor-α antagonist adalimumab and delineate the underlying mechanisms. METHODS: We evaluated the efficacy and safety of the combination therapy with adalimumab by comparing 2 treatment cohorts of SJS/TEN patients. Patient plasma samples were collected for proteomics analysis. RESULTS: The combination therapy with adalimumab significantly shortened the time to mucocutaneous re-epithelization and healing, with reduced side effects caused by corticosteroids. Plasma proteomic profiling showed that apolipoprotein A-IV (APOA4) was one of the most significant differentially expressed proteins. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that APOA4 level was significantly associated with prognosis parameter of SJS/TEN (P = .004), but not with disease severity score (severity-of-illness score for toxic epidermal necrolysis [SCORTEN]) (P = .118). Thus further research will be helpful to effectively incorporate APOA4 into current SCORTEN-driven protocols. LIMITATIONS: The cohort size is relatively small. Both cohorts had low overall SCORTEN scores. CONCLUSION: Adalimumab in combination with corticosteroids demonstrates significant clinical benefits over corticosteroids alone in SJS/TEN patients. Moreover, APOA4 may serve as a novel prognostic marker of SJS/TEN.

Case Report: Successful Treatment of Kaposi's Sarcoma With Anlotinib in an HIV-Negative Patient After the Treatment of Drug Reaction With Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms Accessory Tragus.

Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS) is a neoplasm derived from endothelial cells and is associated with human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) infection. It is mostly seen in patients suffering from AIDS and/or chronic immunosuppression. Currently, systemic chemotherapy is the primary treatment option for the advanced KS. However, there is no consensus on the treatment of KS. In this case, an 84-year-old man with a history of psoriasis developed multiple painful dark purple nodules on the trunk and extremities during the treatment of drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS). KS was confirmed by the skin biopsy, and the immunohistochemical staining demonstrated the positivity for HHV-8 while the anti-HIV test was negative. The patient then received anlotinib treatment, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, for 5 months, and his skin lesions subsided. This case indicates that anlotinib may be a potential treatment option for KS.