Unlocking Clear Skin: An Acne Vaccine for a New Era

Narrator: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute radio show, hosted by Kevin Gettings of WSOS St Augustine Radio and powered by ENCORE Research Group. Each Monday morning, Dr. Michael Koren calls in to bring you the latest medical updates with insightful discussions. MedEvidence is where we help you navigate the real truth behind medical research, with both a clinical and research perspective, so

Kevin Geddings: 0:22

Dr. Michael Koren is here with us.

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:24

Good morning, Kevin. We're doing an acne vaccine study at our research offices.

Kevin Geddings: 0:30

Wow, wow. That sounds exciting, right? I mean because I think a lot of people of a certain generation, or even the current generation. You have these creams and ointments and it seems to be a never-ending struggle. So what's your sense of this vaccine and its effectiveness?

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:44

Yeah, it's really neat. Well, so at the end of the day, acne is related to a bacteria that affects the pores in your skin, and people in their teenage years are certainly prone to that because of the hormonal changes that occur at that time. But actually adults also have hormonal changes and sometimes older people do get outbreaks of acne. And the concept behind the vaccine is that we can train one's immune system to fight the bacteria that causes acne, and this should be a much better solution for certain people, not for mild forms of acne, but for people that have more severe forms of acne. They can help them avoid the whole cycle of using these stringent and very strong drugs and ultimately antibiotics that can cause other problems with your overall system, and just prepare your immune system to fight off the bacteria that causes acne in the first place.

Kevin Geddings: 1:36

So would you get this vaccine at the onset of acne, or would you get it as a preventative sort of weapon?

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:43

It would be something that would be appropriate for people that have had multiple outbreaks. So again, we're not recommending this for routine run of the mill one's zit acne but for people that have had really a hard time with it over a period of time, that haven't responded to the usual topical treatment.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:02

This could be a really really interesting solution and we're doing some early phase research. But imagine if you're somebody that has had severe outbreaks of acne. It's very psychologically crippling, especially for people in their teenage years, which is a common occurrence. But even for adults. You're a single adult and if you're having these outbreaks of acne or you have some hormonal changes and it occurs, it makes you less comfortable going outside, less comfortable interacting, and we have an interesting solution that doesn't require a pill a day. Y ou take the vaccine and hopefully over the next six to 12 months you're acne free. So we'll see. Again, it's research, but something a little bit different for us. I'm working with a great investigator and dermatologist, Dr. Michael Bernhardt, on this. Mike and I actually did a neat podcast on this subject. He's an incredible wealth of knowledge in the area and I encourage people to go on our MedEvidence platform and learn more about this acne vaccine program.

Kevin Geddings: 3:04

And we're spending time, b y the way, if you're just hopping in your vehicle, that's the voice of Dr. Michael Koren, he a medical doctor and research scientist, cardiologist, but also heads up the show at ENCORE Research Group, where they do leading edge medical research that you can participate in or members of your family or friends. All you have to do to learn more about how you can do that is to go to the website ENCOREdocs. com, their office is located really close to UF Flagler Hospital here in St. John's County. So if I wanted to take this acne vaccine, would they have to take it every year, or is the idea that you could take it at age 16 or 17? And that would be it.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:44

A good question and we don't know the answer to that yet. It's still relatively early phase research and we'll see. The answers to those questions are ultimately what we derive from doing research programs. But it's interesting and I'm sort of interested in having this conversation with you because it also brings out sort of the family nature of what we do at research. So you know, even already we've had family members come, maybe a parent or a grandparent comes and is working on their Fatty Liver disease and they bring their child or grandchild in because they're working on their acne. So it's one of the nice things about our research offices is that we cover a lot of different therapeutic areas in medicine and different members of families can work on problems that affect them and still do something together.

Kevin Geddings: 4:32

Yeah, also, I guess, before I let you go too, it makes me wonder about when you know people that are not quite 18, they're not adults yet. How do they participate in medical research with you at ENCORE Research Group? I guess there's a process right against parental involvement, that sort of thing.

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:47

Totally, Totally. It's very important. So you have to be 18 years old to get full consent, but a teenager would give what we call assent, which means they're going along with it, but they don't have the legal authority to fully consent. So, to your point, if you're under age 18, you would have to have a parent consent with the teenager's assent, and it's usually not a horrible process. But it is another little wrinkle in what we do when we're treating people who are less than 18 years old.

Kevin Geddings: 5:17

Okay, interesting. Well, if you'd like to learn more, if there's someone in your family you, perhaps, or someone that you know, a child or you know grandchild as well and they are struggling with acne, they should learn more about how they can participate. You'll also get some amazing healthcare, or they will, and you'll get to watch what goes on Go to ENCOREdocs. com and E Dr. Koren I guess they can just call the number here in Northeast Florida right to learn more and to perhaps sign up for the study, correct?

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:47

Absolutely yeah.

Kevin Geddings: 5:48

That number again 904-730-0166. - you mentioned a podcast with a dermatologist that's involved in this as well. How can our listeners access that podcast about this acne vaccine?

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:05

Yeah, Just look up MedEvidence. com, and Dr. Michael Bernhardt and I had a really fun and interesting conversation about acne. Even if you don't participate in the study, I think you'll find it very worthwhile to understand acne a lot better. Michael is a world of knowledge in this area.

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:24

He runs through all the different treatment options and he's also very excited about this particular study and is the principal investigator for it. So I want to encourage people to go on MedEvidence. com MedEvidence. com and check it out. That's what they think, and if they know somebody who may be a candidate for the vaccine study, let us know.

Kevin Geddings: 6:44

Absolutely Well, Dr. Koren. Thank you for your time. This is really exciting stuff, and have a good week and we'll speak with you again on Monday of next week.

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:52

Have a great week, Kevin.

Narrator: 6:53

Thanks for joining the MedEvidence podcast. To learn more, head over to MedEvidence. com or subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.