UAMS Researchers Find Better Cure for the Common Wart

05-08-02 (Little Rock)   Dermatologists at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) have developed a new treatment for common warts that appears to be more successful than any standard method.

Thomas Horn, M.D., chair of the Department of Dermatology in the UAMS College of Medicine, and Sandra Marchese Johnson, M.D., an assistant professor in the department, have found they can stimulate the body to fight and destroy all warts by injecting a single wart with approved skin test antigens.

The treatment was successful in 74 percent of patients in a pilot study. Drs. Horn and Johnson reported the success of their pilot study in the journal Archives of Dermatology in April 2001, collaborating with UAMS biostatistician Paul K. Roberson, Ph.D. They now are recruiting volunteers with warts for more clinical trials of this treatment.

The researchers have obtained a patent for the novel treatment and are now planning to manufacture their new medicine for warts.

The Arkansas BioVentures Accelerator (ABVA), a science-oriented business incubator program at UAMS, will assist in development of the company. ABVA provides   technical support for new biotech companies that are based on patented inventions created by UAMS faculty – such as innovative drugs and biotechnology products.

Drs. Horn and Johnson began experimenting with immunotherapy for common warts in 1999, thanks to research grants from the Biomedical Research Foundation, the Dermatology Foundation, UAMS pilot study grants, National Institutes of Health funding from the UAMS General Clinical Research Center, and the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority.
 
Horn is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, was a resident in dermatology at the University of Maryland, and completed a fellowship in dermatopathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Johnson attended Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and completed a residency in dermatology in the UAMS College of Medicine. She is director of the Dermatology Clinical Trials Unit at UAMS and treats adult and pediatric patients in the UAMS Dermatology Clinic, UAMS Laser and Cosmetic Surgery Center, and at Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.

Wesley Burks, M.D., an immunologist in the College of Medicine and director of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute, and Ricki Helm, Ph.D., of Arkansas Children’s Hospital, are collaborating with Drs. Horn and Johnson in the trial of mumps-candida-trichophyton immunotherapy for warts.

”We hope to unlock the secrets of why some people get warts as well as why some people have difficulty ridding themselves of warts,” Johnson said.

# # #  

Click on above images for high res photos.
Thomas Horn, M.D.
Sandra Marchese Johnson, M.D.

PR Contact:    
Mike H. Mottler, Director
University Relations                              
Phone:  501-686-6270  
Fax:      501-686-5067 
E-mail:  mottlermikeh@uams.edu      

Content Contact: 
Thomas Horn, M.D., Chairman
Dep’t. of Dermatology
Phone:  501-686-5110

03/30/07