Topical ivermectin treatment of rosacea changes the bacterial microbiome of the skin (and reduces symptoms)

For those of you who keep up on Ivermectin--more studies are on the horizon including clinical trials

The study link:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022202X24028690

^^^The squatter

Here is a previous stack on Ivermectin for wound healing and the associated studies:

This study looks at something that was not getting much attention before, and that is the impact on mites and the human skin. This might seem a bit icky to think about, especially for those who suffer from this skin condition, but researchers wanted to know, if there was a correlation between this skin condition, and rosacea.

Sometimes, whether we like it or not, medications are used as a condition “rule in” or “rule out”.

In this situation, due to the properties of ivermectin, researchers conducted a study using topical ivermectin on the affected areas of skin on a small group of participants in a clinic in California.

The mite that is believed to be linked to this skin condition which causes inflammation, and other symptoms, is the Demodex mite.

https://www.ungexau.com/s/demodex-mites-comprehensive-guide

A snippet from the study:

“This was a single-site, 12-week, open-label study at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD Institutional Review Board protocol#: 160765). Ten subjects with papulopustular rosacea were topically treated with 1% ivermectin cream daily for 12 weeks to cover the affected and surrounding non-lesional areas (Supplementary Figure S1). Ten healthy age-matched subjects were enrolled for a control group. Detailed patient characteristics (Supplementary Table S1), sample collection, methods, and statistical analyses can be found in Supplementary materials. A written informed consent was obtained from all participants.”

The rsearchers used some PCR and other methods to look at the skin of those with symptoms and those who did not have symptoms.

”Demodex, Cutibacterium acnes, and Staphylococcus epidermidis were quantified in the DNA samples extracted from skin swabs at baseline by quantitative PCR (qPCR) (Supplementary Table S2). Absolute abundances in S. epidermidis and C. acnes were similar on the skin of healthy subjects and rosacea subjects at baseline including both lesional and non-lesional skin (Supplementary Figure S2). No differences in Demodex were observed between normal and rosacea skin. However, an increased level of Demodex was observed in lesional skin compared to non-lesional skin of rosacea subjects.”

Even though, there are limitations to this study, such as small number of participants, it was found that the topical ivermectin reduced the number of mites.

The conclusion of the study, is that Ivermectin reduced the number of mites, but bacteria as well. The second part might not be a good thing. We need our bacteria to protect us. Our bacteria serves many functions to keep us well and safe from pathogens.

”In this study, we provide evidence that topical ivermectin not only decreases the density of Demodex but also affects the bacterial community on the skin of rosacea patients. Baseline values of S. epidemidis showed no differences between healthy and rosacea skin, nor between lesional and non-lesional skin. Baseline values of Demodex also showed no difference between rosacea and healthy subjects, again raising the question of Demodex as the sole driver of rosacea (Falay and Gur, 2018). Treatment with ivermectin resulted in the decrease in Demodex and increase in S. epidermidis as well as improvement in CEA score and papule number. These findings suggest that future studies with larger sample sizes are warranted to explore the possibility that the therapeutic benefits of ivermectin may be partly attributed to off-target effects on some skin commensal bacteria in addition to its effects on Demodex.”


The researchers did conclude, that using topical Ivermectin reduced the symptoms of Rosacea. They do note there are limitations to the study, and more research is needed.