New treatment in the works for disfiguring skin disease, vitiligo

Source: The Conversation,  October 2018

In many parts of the world there is great shame and stigma tied to vitiligo, an autoimmune disease of the skin that causes disfiguring white spots, which can appear anywhere on the body. In some societies, individuals with vitiligo, and even their family members, are shunned and excluded from arranged marriages. The rejection is so crippling that one person suffering from the disease even requested an amputation of his forearm affected by vitiligo because he could marry with only one arm, but could not with vitiligo.

I am a physician-scientist and director of the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and I’ve witnessed my patients’ suffering and depression. Some are so ashamed of how they look; they refuse to leave their homes in daylight, they quit their jobs, and they lose relationships. Some of those afflicted with vitiligo have committed suicide.

I began studying vitiligo in 2008 because this devastating condition affects about one percent of all people – over 75 million worldwide – and patients deserve better treatments. In a recent report published in Science Translational Medicine we describe a new therapy that is showing particular promise in mice with this disease.