Sir, Verruca vulgaris is a benign epithelial hyperplasia caused by human papilloma viruses that causes therapeutic problems, especially in immunocompromised patients. We report here 2 patients on continuous immunosuppressive medication with relapsing warts resistant to topical immunotherapy with diphenylcyclopropenone (DCP). As an alternative, occlusive treatment with 5% imiquimod cream was suc...

Yaumatei Dermatology Clinic, 12/F, Yaumatei Specialist Clinic, 143 Battery Street, Kowloon, Hong Kong Imiquimod is a topical immune response modifier. It is licensed for genital warts, actinic keratosis, and recently basal cell carcinoma. Studies showed that it had potent anti-tumour activity by enhancing both innate and acquired immunity. A growing number of evidences are found to support the ...

BACKGROUND Imiquimod 5% is licensed for the treatment of external genital warts, superficial basal cell carcinoma, and actinic keratosis (AK) and is being used experimentally in various other dermato-oncological conditions. OBJECTIVE This observational study shall show that nonmelanoma skin cancer can be detected at its earliest subclinical stage by its reaction with imiquimod and can be clea...

Squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of the skin are sun-induced skin cancers that are particularly numerous in patients on T cell immunosuppression. We found that blood vessels in SCCs did not express E-selectin, and tumors contained few cutaneous lymphocyte antigen (CLA)(+) T cells, the cell type thought to provide cutaneous immunosurveillance. Tumors treated with the Toll-like receptor (TLR)7 ago...

OBJECTIVE To assess the clinical and molecular response of patients with recurrent high-grade vulvar, vaginal, or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia treated with topical 1-2(2-methylpropyl)-1H-imidazo [4,5-c] quinolin-4-amine (imiquimod) cream 5%, an immune response modifier with known efficacy in the treatment of external genital warts. METHODS This is the first case series in the peer-revie...

High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV) are the etiological pathogen of cervical and a number of ano-genital cancers. How HPVs overcome the significant barriers of the skin immune system has been the topic of intensive research. The E6 and E7 oncoproteins have emerged as key players in the deregulation of host innate immune pathways that are required for the recruitment of effector cells of the ...

IL-2: interleukin-2 INTRODUCTION The treatment of in-transit and satellite melanoma metastases is challenging. Treatment options for these cutaneous and subcutaneous lesions include surgical excision, radiotherapy, isolated limb infusion/perfusion, electrochemotherapy, cryotherapy, laser therapy (pulsed dye or carbon dioxide), systemic treatment with interferon-a or interleukin-2 (IL-2), topica...

OBJECTIVE We postulated that either oral or vaginal administration of the immune response modifier imiquimod would decrease vaginal shedding of Chlamydia trachomatis, mouse pneumonitis strain (MoPn), in a murine model. METHODS Female BALB/c mice were infected intravaginally with C. trachomatis (MoPn) and were administered imiquimod either orally (30 mg/kg) or vaginally (10 microl of 5% imiqui...

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease in which Th17 cells play a crucial role. Since indigenous gut microbiota influences the development and reactivity of immune cells, we analyzed the link among microbiota, T cells and the formation of psoriatic lesions in the imiquimod-induced murine model of psoriasis. To explore the role of microbiota, we induced skin inflammation in germ-free (...

Imiquimod is an oral inducer of interferon (IFN) and several other proinflammatory cytokines and has been successfully used topically as an antiviral agent for the treatment of genital warts. We have investigated the molecular mechanisms by which imiquimod induces the expression of IFNs, IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs), and proinflammatory cytokines in vivo, using mice deficient in various componen...