ANTI – ACNE GEL

Acne is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the skin, affecting adolescents and young adults. It is characterized by comedones, papules, pustules, nodules and cysts over the face, chest, upper back and arms and may cause permanent scarring.

The pathophysiological factors that are involved in the development of acne are altered follicular growth and differentiation, sebaceous gland hyperplasia, Propionbacterium acnes (P. acnes) colonization of the hair follicle, and an inflammatory response.

Antibiotic resistance of P. acnes is appearing (Liu et al., 2014). One of the solutions could be bacteriophages (phages). They are specific to their bacterial host and they multiply at the site of infection where there are sensitive bacteria.

3 phages of Propionibacterium acnes previously isolated in our lab - Fd1, Fd2, Fd3 - were introduced into the basic drug delivery base Carbopol gel that provides a possibility of anti-acne topical treatment. The main goal of this research was to detect phage survivability in the gel, while taking into account different temperature conditions, +4ᵒC and room temperature, over the course of 3 months.

After 3 months, phages displayed remarkably high levels of survival in the Carbopol gel when kept at +4ᵒC. At the same time, phage activity was not detected in the gel that was kept in room temperature conditions after one month.

These results allow us to continue working with Carbopol gel as a pharmacological base, and thus develop a method of topical phage therapy against P. acnes in an acne mouse model.