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Inhibiting sebum production to treat acne

  1. Sarah Crunkhorn
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Sebum oils play critical functions in the human skin, ranging from thermoregulation to antimicrobial defence. However, excess sebum production can contribute to the development of acne vulgaris. Writing in Science Translational Medicine, Esler and colleagues now demonstrate that human sebum production is highly dependent on sebocyte de novo lipogenesis (DNL) and flux through this pathway is elevated in patients with acne. Furthermore, small-molecule inhibition of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) — the rate-limiting enzyme in the DNL pathway — reduced sebum production in humans.

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Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 18, 498 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41573-019-00092-x

References

  1. Esler, W. P. et al. Human sebum requires de novo lipogenesis, which is increased in acne vulgaris and suppressed by acetyl-CoA carboxylase inhibition. Sci. Transl Med. 11, eaau8465 (2019)

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