David Rosmarin, MD: Futuristic Therapies for Atopic Dermatitis

David Rosmarin, MD, chair of the department of dermatology at Indiana University School of Medicine, spoke with the HCPLive editorial team about his talk titled ‘Futuristic therapies for atopic dermatitis’ at the Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis (RAD) 2024 Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Rosmarin noted that recent advances in understanding the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis have led to new treatments, yet there are unmet needs for patients with eczema that remain. Some of these include JAK-STAT inhibitors and others.

“We’ve definitely made a lot of advances with the approval of dupilumab, now more recent tralokinumab and hopefully some of the JAK inhibitors,” Rosmarin wrote. “It's really made a tremendous difference, but there's still a need for more treatments. There are patients who don't get better with some of these agents and are looking for other treatments.”

The much-discussed future of personalized treatment has not quite come to fruition yet, Rosmarin noted.

“Some of the treatments that we're highlighting are going over some of the STAT inhibitors that are being developed,” Rosmarin said. “Just downstream of JAKs are the transcription factor STATS, and it's been challenging to target them in the past. One strategy is that companies figure out how to target the SH2 domain of STAT and that can lead to inhibition. Another strategy, which I'm very excited about, is degrading the STAT protein. By targeting STAT transcription factor for the proteasome, which naturally degrades the STAT within the body, you can almost completely get rid of it with very low doses of medication.”

Rosmarin also noted the strategy of using silencing RNAs, which he noted can lead to strong results and minimal side effects. He added that these treatments are not quite at phase 3, though there is a lot of hope for them to make it.

“I think what's most important for clinicians is just to be aware of these treatments that are in the process of development, because unfortunately, some of them will not make it,” Rosmarin said. “But some of them might. And to understand the pathogenesis of the disease, now that we know more information about it, we can really help target different aspects of the pathway to bring into some of these treatments.”

To learn more about this topic, view the full interview at RAD 2024 posted above.

The quotes used in this summary article were edited for the purposes of clarity.