Patent Application: US-92972411-A

Abstract:
a method for treating inflammatory acne on the skin of a patient , the method comprising irradiating the skin of the patient with radiant infrared light emitting diode light , subsequently applying ala onto the skin of the patient and irradiating the ala treated skin with visible led light .

Description:
exposure to radiant infrared ( ir ) radiation in known to rise skin temperature via inside - out dermal water absorption and may be useful in pdt - ala to promote ala penetration and its conversion to ppix [ xxiv ]. radiant ir photopreparation by increasing skin temperature may thus lead to improved pdt results . in the present within - patient study , the effect of radiant ir exposure using light emitting diode ( led ) at 970 nm prior to ala - pdt application was examined in the treatment of 10 patients with mild to moderate inflammatory type acne . as the pdt light source , 630 nm led illumination was employed as it is a deep penetrating well absorbed wavelength which falls into the ppix absorption peaks ( fig1 ) [ xxv , xxvi ]. it was expected that the ala - pdt ir pre - treated side would yield a better clinical outcome measured as the percent reduction in inflammatory acne lesion count four weeks post treatment compared to the control ala - pdt alone treated side . patient selection : ten ( 10 ) healthy patients exhibiting mild to moderate acne based on the combined acne severity classification [ xxvii ] with a lesion count of at least 10 , were recruited from the dr . daniel barolet clinic in montreal , canada between september 2007 and february 2008 . inclusion criteria included patients with skin type i to iii according to the fitzpatrick classification system [ xxviii ]. exclusion criteria comprised patients taking cortisone ( prednisone ), anticoagulant therapy , or any drug known to increase photosensitivity . in addition , during the 12 months preceding the study , patients were required not to have used isotretinoin ( accutane ), or applied topical steroids on the site to be treated . moreover , oral antibiotics use , laser or topical anti - acne medication at the to - be - treated site were not permitted for eight weeks prior to the study . patients gave written informed consent to participate in this trial in compliance with the us code of federal regulations dealing with the conduct of clinical studies ( 21 cfr including parts 50 and 56 concerning informed consent and irb regulations ). the study was conducted according to good clinical practice guidelines and the principles of the declaration of helsinki , and was approved by the institutional review board services ( div . 1373737 toronto , canada ). study procedure : patients were assigned to a split face or split back group to allow for within - patient assessments of clinical effects . assignment was based on the patient &# 39 ; s problem area . one side was randomly ( using a coin flip ) assigned to receive ir pre - treatment and ala - pdt , and the other ala - pdt alone to serve as control . the ir pre - treatment consisted of a 15 minute exposure to radiant ir led at 970 nm ( 80 mw / cm 2 , 72 j / cm 2 using the lumiphaser / ir ™, opusmed inc . montreal , canada ) to reach peak h 2 o absorption inside - out temperature of 45 ° c . papillary dermis temperature was monitored with a needle probe throughout the session and up to 40 minutes ( type - t thermocouple , omega , montreal , canada ). ala ( 20 % levulan kerastick , dusa pharmaceuticals , usa ) was then applied on both sides for 60 minutes , after which pdt with led at 630 nm ( 50 mw / cm 2 , 70 j / cm 2 ) was performed on the entire face or back surface for a duration of 23 minutes ( lumiphase - r / b ™, opusmed inc . montreal , canada ) ( fig2 ). no cooling method was used . digital photographs ( canon dual flash eos 10d , canon , tokyo , japan with ex sigma 50 mm 1 : 2 . 8 macro lens , sigma , aizu , japan ) were taken prior to and four weeks after the procedure . each photograph was taken maintaining identical ambient lighting , pose and camera angles . acne lesion counts : acne lesion counts were performed before and four weeks after the pdt treatment . all types of inflammatory ( papules , pustules , nodules ) and noninflammatory ( open and closed comedones ) acne lesions were counted . lesion counts were performed based on the digital photographs by two non - treating physicians who were blinded to the treatment regimen ( ir - treated or control side ) and to the timing of the photographs ( baseline or post - treatment ). clinical global severity assessment : the global severity of acne was assessed at the end of the study by the three non - treating physicians , as described above , using a six - point rating scale ( table 1 ). clinical success was defined by grades 0 ( clear ) or 1 ( almost clear ). adverse effects : adverse reactions were monitored throughout the study . signs of erythema , oedema , scaling / crusting , bronzing , textural changes , hyperpigmentation , and hypopigmentation were documented during the time period of the clinical trial . statistical analysis : in order to achieve an 80 % chance of detecting ( at the two sided 5 % level ), a 20 % difference between the ir - treated and control sides in percent change from baseline in inflammatory lesions at week - 4 , with an assumed standard deviation of 15 , nine patients were required . to account for a 90 % per protocol completion rate , the planned number of patients to be enrolled was 10 . cronbach &# 39 ; s alpha was calculated to assess inter - rater reliability in assessments . reliability was deemed acceptable if cronbach alpha was ≧ 7 allowing raters &# 39 ; assessments to be combined for analysis . the primary outcome variable was the percent change from baseline in inflammatory lesion count measured four weeks post - treatment . secondary efficacy variables included percent change from baseline in noninflammatory lesion and severity score at the end of the study . the mann - whitney test was used to compare the two treatment sides . the p - values were considered significant at p ≦ 0 . 05 . spss 16 . 0 statistical software was used . in the present study , skin temperature was increased on one side with radiant ir prior to ala - pdt and compared to the contralateral side treated with ala - pdt alone . temperature variations were registered by thermocouple probes and were never greater than 45 ° c . ( basal dermo - epidermal junction temperature of 33 ° c .± 0 . 5 ° c .). monitoring thus attested that skin temperature prior to ala application reached the target temperature within 15 minutes ( fig3 ). patient characteristics and lesion types at baseline are presented in table 2 . one patient was lost to follow - up , and therefore nine patients were included in the analyses . at baseline , there was no difference in lesion counts between the two sides in all lesion types except for papules ( p = 0 . 037 ). the inter - rater reliability in assessments was found to be high ( cronbach &# 39 ; s α 0 . 8 to 0 . 9 ); data from the different raters was thus combined for analysis . the percent change from baseline in lesion counts post - treatment are presented in table 3 . the assessment of inflammatory acne at week - 4 revealed a statistically significant reduction in lesion count on the ir - treated side ( median 73 %, 95 % confidence interval ( ci ) 51 - 81 %), in comparison to the control side ( median 38 %, 95 % ci 8 - 55 %) ( p & lt ; 0 . 0001 ). the ir - treated side thus produced an additional benefit of 35 %. for the secondary efficacy variable of noninflammatory lesions , the percent change from baseline for the ir - treated side was found to be statistically superior to that of the control side ( p = 0 . 037 ). the results from the clinical global severity assessment also revealed a significant improvement on the ir - treated versus the control side ( p = 0 . 027 ) ( table 4 ). the clinical success rate ( i . e . almost clear or clear categories of the clinical global severity assessment ) was found to be higher on the ir - treated side than on the control side at week - 4 ( 78 % vs . 44 %). fig4 depicts before and after photographs of the ir - treated and control sides for a typical male patient . the treatment was overall well tolerated with the majority of patients reporting a slight but bearable sensation of heat during photoactivation . most patients presented with slight erythema post - pdt which disappeared within 48 hours , and two patients experienced acneiform folliculitis for 3 - 4 days . aside from slight erythema and mild crusting , no other adverse signs , such as post - inflammatory hyperpigmentation ( pih ), were observed in patients . conventional treatments such as topical and systemic antibiotics and isotretinoin may be a good treatment option for patients with acne vulgaris . however , many such patients exhibit transient effects and severe adverse reactions , and therefore need other treatment options . as an alternative , topical ala - pdt treatment has been used with appreciable results . the efficacy of ala - pdt in the treatment of acne was first described using very high fluence ( up to 200 joules / cm 2 ) [ viii ]. thus far , however , anti - acne ala - pdt effects have only been documented in a limited number of randomized controlled clinical trials [ xi , xii , xiii ]. the rationale for the use of ala - pdt against acne is based on the ability of ala to penetrate sebaceous glands , reach p . acnes and increase ppix synthesis . ala - pdt efficacy is limited by the ability of ala to penetrate the skin and induce ppix accumulation . in the present study , we investigated the impact of pre - treating skin by increasing skin temperature by means of radiant ir radiation to circumvent these limitations to enhance clinical outcomes of patients with inflammatory type acne . the results from the present study revealed that , when skin was pre - heated with ir radiation , significant additional benefits over the non heated side were observed for inflammatory and noninflammatory lesions , as well as in acne global severity scores four weeks post - treatment . the improvement seen on the ala - pdt control side was in the range of previous accounts of the effectiveness of led and other pdt light sources in the treatment of acne [ xi , xii , xiii ]. ir radiation typically induces molecular vibrations and rotations and by so doing increases skin temperature [ xxix ]. given the considerable depth of penetration at 970 nm , this photopreparation method provides an inside - out heating , up to the reticular dermis where the targeted sebaceous glands are located . although the mechanisms at play have not been investigated in the present study , the observed temperature - related additional therapeutic benefits may be due to the induction of alterations in transcutaneous diffusion kinetics of the photosensitizer allowing enhanced percutaneous penetration of ala and subsequent ppix formation . there is also the possibility that part of the effect might be related to enhanced conversion of ala to ppix due to the elevated skin temperature during incubation . indeed , temperature monitoring revealed that skin temperature remained above physiological level during the major part of the incubation period . the observed therapeutic effects were seen after only one pdt treatment with red light ( 630 nm ). red light penetrates deep into tissues , reaching the targeted sebaceous glands [ xxx ]. the mechanism of action is thought to involve the ala - induced increase in endogenous ppix synthesis , which absorbs light during photoactivation to form singlet oxygen and reactive radicals , leading to eradication of p . acnes and destruction of the pilosebaceous unit [ ix , viii , x ]. in addition , red light may also have anti - inflammatory properties by influencing cytokine release from macrophages that stimulate fibroblast proliferation and the production of growth factors , thereby influencing the process of inflammation , healing , and wound repair [ xxxi , xxxii ]. the results from this study also showed that the performed therapy was well tolerated with no significant adverse events , likely due to the low level characteristics of led . other pdt light sources , such as intense pulsed light and pulsed dye lasers , are often associated with important side effects such as severe swellings and erythema after treatment which , although transient , can be inconvenient and lead to patient withdrawal . from a clinical perspective , the absence of thermal injury ( peak power effects ) to the skin during light activation may yield a significant advantage over other light - based methods , given that improvements can be achieved without thermal damage and with limited adverse reactions . hence , one must not underestimate the importance of dose - rate during pdt when using low level light sources such as leds to progressively photoactivate the photosensitizer with the appropriate wavelength capable of reaching the sebaceous glands in the red spectrum [ xxxiii ]. near ir irradiation to prepare skin for ala - pdt treatment of acne patients appears to be a clinically significant method . although pre - heating of skin prior to ala application adds fifteen minutes to the total procedure time , the additional clinical benefits seen with this innovative method outweigh the additional time . ir pre - treatment with ala - pdt was shown to produce notable results with limited side effects after only one treatment , thereby limiting concerns over patient compliance . moreover , it is very easy to perform in a clinical setting , and less invasive than other pre - treatment modalities ( e . g ., micro - dermabrasion ) [ xxxiv ]. the use of ir - pdt in acne might prove to reduce the need for long - term conventional treatments , such as antibiotic use associated with the growing potential of inducing antibiotic - resistant bacteria and retinoid systemic side effects . this procedure might also be useful in the treatment of other skin conditions where pdt has been found to be helpful , such as superficial basal cell carcinoma and bowen disease [ xxxv , xxxvi ]. although the present invention has been described hereinabove by way of preferred embodiments thereof , it can be modified , without departing from the spirit and nature of the subject invention as defined in the appended claims . i cunliffe w j , simpson n b . disorders of the sebaceous glands . in champion r h , burton j l , burns d a , breathnach s m , eds . textbook of dermatology 6th edn , vol . 3 . oxford : blackwell science . 1998 : 1940 - 1973 . ii bojar r a , holland k t . acne and propionibacterium acnes . clin dermatol 2004 ; 22 : 375 - 379 . iii ashkenazi h , malik z , harth y , nitzan y . eradication of propionibacterium acnes by its endogenic porphyrins after illumination with high intensity blue light . fems immunol med microbiol 2003 ; 35 : 17 - 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