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Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia 2010 October;145(5):675-88

Copyright © 2010 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Advances in pemphigus research, signaling, and acantholysis

Bektas M. ¹, Runager K. ¹, Petersen J. S. ^{1, 4}, Rubenstein D. S. ^{1, 2, 3} ✉

¹ Department of Dermatology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; ² Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; ³ Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA, Center of Insoluble Protein Structure (inSPIN), Department of Molecular Biology, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus, Denmark

Pemphigus is a family of human autoimmune blistering diseases in which pathogenic autoantibodies induce blistering in skin and mucosa. The mechanisms by which pemphigus autoantibodies induce disease in the skin is under active investigation. A large number of cellular events induced in the target keratinocytes by pemphigus IgG have been described and suggest that pemphigus IgG binding to desmogleins trigger a complicated cascade of intracellular signaling and regulatory events. Targeting these intracellular events may prove useful therapeutically.