DermTech and Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego, Initiate Study to Understand Effects of Vitamin D as a Treatment for Atopic Dermatitis in Children and Yo...( DermTech's Non-invasive EGIR Technolo...)

DermTech's Non-invasive EGIR Technology to be Employed to Generate Genetic,

Objective Data on Therapy Response

LA JOLLA, Calif., Oct 27 /PRNewswire/ -- DermTech, a biotechnology company developing EGIR(TM) (Epidermal Genetic Information Retrieval) technology for the non-invasive early detection of melanoma, drug development and other applications, and Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego, today announced the initiation of a study involving the use of the company's EGIR technology as a vehicle to evaluate oral and/or topical Vitamin D as a treatment for atopic dermatitis (eczema).

"We are looking forward to working with the team at DermTech and employing the company's non-invasive EGIR ("tape stripping") technology as part of our research," said Lawrence F. Eichenfield, MD, Chief of Pediatric and Adolescent Dermatology, Rady Children's Hospital and the Principal Investigator on the study. "Atopic dermatitis is a condition that gets little public attention but can have a major negative impact on a child or young adult's quality of life. A recent small study has suggested that Vitamin D may help bolster the skin's immune responses, but more data is needed. We will be using the EGIR technology to evaluate the expression of defense proteins in the affected population before and after treatment with Vitamin D to help elucidate a potentially important part of atopic dermatitis immunology and therapy."

Atopic dermatitis is a common, chronic inflammatory skin disease with complex immunologic features. It has 15-20% prevalence in children within the first decade of life and there are limited therapeutic options.

In "normal skin", anti-microbial peptides (AMP) such as cathelicidin (hCAP18/LL37) help regulate innate immunity by directly killing microbes including Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as fungi and certain viruses. Patients with atopic dermatitis however, lack sufficient expression of these AMPs and
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