They found the itch cells!

Researchers identify cells that say 'scratch me'
AP

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer – 1 hr 30 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Got an itch to scratch? Scientists have pinpointed a key group of cells that sends itch-alerts to the brain. When researchers at Washington University in St. Louis knocked out those cells in mice, it alleviated their itchiness without affecting their ability to sense pain — work that opens a possible new target for creating better itch relievers.

Don't underestimate that need. The kind of itch caused by bug bites or allergies typically goes away with a little scratching or some antihistamines. But some people can scratch themselves raw without relieving serious, daily itching triggered by a variety of conditions, such as certain cancers, chronic kidney failure, and even use of certain narcotic pain relievers.

Indeed, pain and itch have been difficult to separate. Previous research has found various nerve pathways that seem involved in both.

But Thursday's report in the journal Science is the first to identify itch-specific cells in the spinal cord, that highway that delivers sensation to the brain.

"It's exciting," said well-known itch specialist Dr. Gil Yosipovitch of North Carolina's Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, who wasn't involved in the new research. "This comprehensive study opens the field."

Lead researcher Zhou-Feng Chen, a Washington University associate professor of anesthesiology, in 2007 discovered the first gene related to itchiness, named GRPR. They found that mice with an inactive version of the gene scratched less when exposed to itchy things than mice with an active gene.

But that didn't prove that the spinal cord neurons, or nerve cells, that harbored this gene were itch-specific. They could also be important to genes related to pain sensation.

So this time, Chen's team injected the spinal cords of mice with a neurotoxin that seeks out the GRPR receptor, sort of a docking site. Over about two weeks, the toxin killed about 80 percent of the cells that harbored that gene.

Before those injections, the mice scratched vigorously. But after the itch cells were killed off, their scratching plummeted — in some cases stopped completely — when Chen introduced one after another itchy substance.

They weren't simply numbed: Their motor function remained normal, and so did their response to pain from heat and pressure in a series of common experiments that show animals flick their tails or pull away their paws during various stresses.

This isn't the only itch pathway to the brain, stressed Wake Forest's Yosipovitch. Nor does anyone know if this gene would behave similarly in people. But researchers have been hunting itch-specific receptors in hopes of eventually learning how to block their "scratch-me" signals to the brain and help relieve at least some types of itch.

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On the Net:

Science: http://www.sciencemag.org

Infant Dies from Eczema

This story just broke my heart. A child in Australia dies from severe eczema and now the parents are on trial because they chose homeopathic ways to treat it and as a result, the baby died. I've always known the effects of eczema could dramatically reduce one's quality of life, but this it he first time I'm actually hearing of death (though there are probably more cases like this but I just never knew).

http://www.smh.com.au/national/couple-did-not-know-eczema-was-fatal-20090506-avef.html

More news on bleach baths for eczema

More news from the UK on bleach baths. This is definitely showing improvement for children. Again, I'd love to try this but the thought of putting bleach on my face worries me a little.

'Bleach Bath' benefits children with eczema

Guava

I got to see my husband's cousin over the weekend and I finally got to ask him what he used on his face to get rid of his eczema. He had one of the more severe cases of eczema I have seen. But over the past year, his face has been perfectly clear.

He told me he uses boiled guava leaves. His parents bring guava leaves (young guava) back from the Philippines. He boils them and uses a cotton ball or swab or something to apply it to his face. Then he refrigerates the leaves and uses it again later.

Here too is a quick little article on what to do:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2224676_treat-inflamed-eczema.html

Eczema on the rise - 40% increase in 5 years!

This article totally threw me for a loop. According to the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, incidences of eczema has risen a whopping 40% in five years (I am assuming this is for the UK only). Wow. Can that be true? If so, then why isn't there more being done about it? Does this mean that there are just more and more people with this genetic mutation? I wonder what the numbers are for the US and for the rest of the world. I do remember reading somewhere that incidences were higher in industrialized countries (perhaps eczema is linked to the rise in all the crap we've been eating over the years, like trans fats, etc.)

Read article

The Link Between Diabetes and Eczema

Scientists have reported in Nature (March 26, 2009 issue) that a protein called caspase 8 plays a critical role in the healing of wounds in laboratory mice. Caspase 8 is deficient in humans with eczema, but produced in excess amounts by diabetics.

The researchers say their discovery may explain why many diabetics lack a normal wound response and suffer severe complications from minor cuts and scrapes, and why those with eczema exhibit a chronic inflammation of the skin that compromises its protective function.

Read article

Target Market

I was just thinking this morning, as I slathered on more CeraVe cream, that eczema sufferers are such easy targets for marketers. Whether you sell the latest cream, lotion, potion or snake oil -- an eczema sufferer will most likely try it, because they(correction: WE) will try anything for relief. There must be a study out there that measures this market - the how many millions or billions of dollars spent worldwide OTC eczema products. What's your guess?