Acne is a very common and disfiguring disease that affects mostly adolescents and, to some extent, adults. The objective of our study was to estimate the adverse effects after isotretinoin by treatment of 3,525 patients due to acne vulgaris in a 5-year observation. Retrospective, comparative study was carried out in Poland and Romania from January 2012 to August 2016. Inclusion criteria into this study were moderate, severe, and nodulocystic inflammatory acne vulgaris. Exclusion criteria were mild acne, pregnant, and lactating women. Statistical analysis was carried out using T test and Chi square. All patients were treated with oral isotretinoin. Patient age ranged from 13-35 years. Dry lips was the most commonly reported adverse effect, affecting 100% of users, followed by xerosis (94.97%) and facial erythema (66.21%). Of all adverse effects, psychiatric symptoms accounted for 25.16%; eye lesions accounted for 8.96%. In lab investigations an increase in the level of total cholesterol and serum triglycerides was observed. This study documents the adverse effect profile of isotretinoin in a large number of patients collected over a period of 4 years. Side effects were mild and well tolerated and did not necessitate stopping the treatment. However, it is important to educate patients about this potential consequence.

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The topical contact sensitiser diphenylcyclopropenone (DCP) remains one of the most effective treatment modalities for alopecia areata (AA). However, some patients (nonresponders) do not respond to this treatment because they do not have an allergic reaction to DCP. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential role of imiquimod in inducing an allergic reaction to DCP in nonresponders. In all, 20 nonresponders were recruited from a group of DCP-treated AA patients. Of these patients, 10 were treated with DCP and topical imiquimod and 10 were treated with DCP alone. A significantly better therapeutic outcome was measured in the DCP plus imiquimod group than in the group treated with DCP alone. The potential mechanism of imiquimod may involve the role of interleukin-12, as previously suggested in an animal model. These findings suggest that imiquimod may have the potential to improve prognosis in nonresponder AA patients treated with DCP.

Polyamidoamine PAMAM dendrimer generation 3 (G3) was modified by attachment of biotin via amide bond and glucoheptoamidated by addition of α-D-glucoheptono-1,4-lacton to obtain a series of conjugates with a variable number of biotin residues. The composition of conjugates was determined by detailed 1-D and 2-D NMR spectroscopy to reveal the number of biotin residues, which were 1, 2, 4, 6, or 8, while the number of glucoheptoamide residues substituted most of the remaining primary amine groups of PAMAM G3. The conjugates were then used as host molecules to encapsulate the 5-aminolevulinic acid. The solubility of 5-aminolevulinic acid increased twice in the presence of the 5-mM guest in water. The interaction between host and guest was accompanied by deprotonation of the carboxylic group of 5-aminolevulinic acid and proton transfer into internal ternary nitrogen atoms of the guest as evidenced by a characteristic chemical shift of resonances in the 1H NMR spectrum of associates. The guest molecules were most likely encapsulated inside inner shell voids of the host. The number of guest molecules depended on the number of biotin residues of the host, which was 15 for non-biotin-containing glucoheptoamidated G3 down to 6 for glucoheptoamidated G3 with 8 biotin residues on the host surface. The encapsulates were not cytotoxic against Caco-2 cells up to 200-µM concentration in the dark. All encapsulates were able to deliver 5-aminolevulinic acid to cells but aqueous encapsulates were more active in this regard. Simultaneously, the reactive oxygen species were detected by staining with H2DCFDA in Caco-2 cells incubated with encapsulates. The amount of PpIX was sufficient for induction of reactive oxygen species upon 30-s illumination with a 655-nm laser beam.

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