Scientists have come a step closer to developing a cure for eczema after discovering how a try in the skins natural barrier can set in motion the difficulty condition.

Eczema, which causes the skin to become ascetic, red and itchy, affects one in five children and one in 12 adults in the UK, according to the National Eczema Society.

Flare-ups can be treated subsequent to creams and steroids, but there is currently no cure for the disease.

Several years ago, researchers at the University of Dundee found the nonappearance of a skin protein called filaggrin caused an inherited skin condition united to eczema, called ichthyosis vulgaris.

Genetic mutations can cause filaggrin, which plays an important role in protecting the skin from irritants, to fade away operating correctly.

Now scientists have built harshly this knowledge to improved find the portion for why some people produce atopic eczema, abstemious skin which often appears concerning the hands, insides of the elbows, backs of the knees and the viewpoint and scalp in children.

We have shown for the first era that loss of the filaggrin protein alone is allowable to alter key proteins and pathways on the go in triggering eczema, said Nick Reynolds, a dermatology professor at Newcastle University.

This research reinforces the importance of filaggrin deficiency leading to problems in the impression of the barrier play in the skin and predisposing someone to eczema.

Professor Reynolds and his team said their findings, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, could apportion advance to drug researchers to pinpoint the causes of eczema and produce a cure for the condition, rather than treating the symptoms.

Their research functioning creating a model of human skin in a lab, which they modified using molecular techniques to make a filaggrin nonexistence in the skins barrier.

They moreover studied a number of additional biological mechanisms affected by the protein, which govern cell structure and bring out responses and can put into bureau skin inflammation.

The researchers compared their findings to the habit skin affected by eczema behaves, and noticed significant similarities.

This latest research from Newcastle is crucial as it expands on our knowledge of how filaggrin impacts upon subsidiary proteins and pathways in the skin, which in slant motivate the illness, said Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists.

This type of research allows scientists to produce treatments that seek the actual root cause of the sickness, rather than just managing its symptoms. Given the level of problem eczema causes, this is a pivotal piece of research.

The research was conducted in collaboration considering scientists at pharmaceutical company Stiefel.