Can Acne Be Prevented With a Vaccine?

River Chad2 min readTreating adult acne can feel like one big science experiment—until now. This is the guy’s guide to adult acne. Read the rest of the stories here.WHAT IF ACNE wasn’t so damn frustrating to treat or just…didn’t exist at all? George Liu, MD, PhD, and a team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego, are developing a vaccine designed to target certain types of bacteria to help prevent acne from forming in the first place.Dr. Liu’s team researches how bacterial pathogens cause diseases. While doing so, they discovered that C. acnes—a bacteria that naturally lives on the skin and whose imbalance is a known acne trigger—secretes two forms of an enzyme called hyaluronidase: Hyl-A and Hyl-B. Hyl-A plays a central role in the development of acne by causing inflammation, whereas Hyl-B is an anti-inflammatory that can be beneficial for skin by reducing inflammation and helping prevent an aggressive immune response.Existing acne treatments are broad and often focus on killing all C. acnes strains, which can take several months and introduce significant side effects that can range anywhere from dryness, redness, peeling, and irritation to antibiotic resistance. Instead, Dr. Liu’s vaccine—which has been tested only on rodents so far—aims to teach the immune system to block just Hyl-A, leaving the benefits of Hyl-B and preventing inflammatory acne from forming in the first place.“Hyl-A plays a central role in the development of acne by causing inflammation, whereas Hyl-B IS AN ANTI-INFLAMMATORY that can be beneficial for skin by reducing inflammation and helping PREVENT an aggressive immune response.”UC San Diego isn’t the only group chasing an acne vaccine. Paris-based pharmaceutical company Sanofi is developing an mRNA vaccine to treat active breakouts rather than prevent future ones. “The idea is to target two of the key contributors to this inflammatory cycle—the [C. acnes] bacterial strains that cause inflammation and the associated toxins—and aim to halt the disease process,” says Jean-François Toussaint, PhD, global head of vaccine research and development at Sanofi. The vaccine is currently being tested in adults with moderate to severe acne during a phase I/II clinical trial.These vaccines could potentially do wonders for chronic acne sufferers and help save hundreds of dollars per year on acne products and medications. Between his team’s research and Sanofi’s developments, Dr. Liu predicts an acne vaccine could be available to the public within the next five years.Sean Zucker is the Grooming and Reviews Editor at Men's Health. He brings over half a decade of experience covering health, wellness, and lifestyle. When Sean's not writing about hair products, you can find him running for exercise, or toward the nearest food truck.