SCCA2 is a reliable biomarker for evaluating pediatric atopic dermatitis

• Published in: Journal of allergy and clinical immunology Vol. 141; no. 5; p. 1934
• Main Authors: Nagao, Mizuho, Inagaki, Shinichiro, Kawano, Toshiki, Azuma, Yoshinori, Nomura, Noriko, Noguchi, Yasuhiko, Ohta, Shoichiro, Kawaguchi, Atsushi, Odajima, Hiroshi, Ohya, Yukihiro, Fujisawa, Takao, Izuhara, Kenji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: St. Louis Elsevier Limited 01-05-2018
• Subjects: Age; Allergies; Asthma; Atopic dermatitis; Biomarkers; Caregivers; Chemokines; Corticosteroids; Dermatitis; Females
• ISSN: 0091-6749; 1097-6825
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2018.01.021

To the Editor: It was claimed before that there is no reliable biomarker for atopic dermatitis (AD).1 However, a systematic review recently showed that thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC)/chemokine C-C motif ligand 17, a chemokine involved in type 2 inflammation, is the most reliable biomarker indicating the disease severity of AD.2 Nevertheless, TARC has a disadvantage in that infants and children show significantly higher TARC levels than adults do; TARC levels in infants <1 year old are almost 3 times those of adults (<1367 ng/mL vs <450 ng/mL).3 This indicates that we need to evaluate serum TARC values depending on the ages of the subjects and that high pathological TARC levels may be masked in younger subjects. [...]a novel biomarker for AD must be found and developed that provides reliable information, particularly in younger subjects. SCCA2 showed better correlations than TARC in 6 intensity items (erythema, edema/papulation, oozing/crusts, excoriations, lichenification, dryness) (see Fig E6 in this article's Online Repository at www.jacionline.org). [...]SCCA2 showed good correlation with other parameters for AD—Eczema Area and Severity Index and visual analog scale scores—in limited investigated numbers (data not shown). [...]we estimated the ability of each biomarker to assess the effects of treatment with topical corticosteroids (see Fig E7 in this article's Online Repository at www.jacionline.org). [...]both SCCA2 (7.4 ng/mL vs 1.5 ng/mL; P < .001) and TARC (2555 pg/mL vs 771 pg/mL; P < .001) significantly decreased, whereas the change in IgE was very slight (711.4 IU/mL vs 643 IU/mL).