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Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease with high risk of skin and systemic infections. Preventive AD therapy is based on skin barrier improvement and anti-inflammatory treatment, whereas, severe skin and systemic infections require systemic therapy. This review describes pathophysiology and possible treatment and prevention methods for AD infectious complications.

The skin is the largest organ of the human body, it creates protective barrier between the internal and external environment. Skin barrier damage may result in homeostasis imbalance, inflammation, or bacterial infection. The microbiome plays a crucial role in maintaining normal skin functioning: control of pathogenic diversity of microorganisms, stimulate immune cells, and modulate chronic dermatoses development. There are various mechanisms for restoring skin barrier function. They are associated with the microorganisms’ activity. Thus, skin restoration is an important task included in the general concept of atopic dermatitis management. One of such methods is the skin surface colonization with commensals, so significant role is assigned to the new dermatological drugs. The normalization of the microbiome in affected skin areas with cosmetic care products can significantly affect the result of skin barrier restoration.

Background. Rapp-Hodgkin syndrome is a rare genetic disease from the ectodermal dysplasia group. It manifests with damage of ectodermal structures — layer of embrional tissue that provides the development of many organs and tissues in the body, such as: skin, sweat glands, hair, teeth, and nails. Disease symptoms may range from mild to severe and include dental abnormalities, fragile, thin or no hair, abnormal nails, hypohidrosis (due to the reduced number of sweat glands), cleft lips and palate. Hidradenitis suppurativa is a chronic inflammatory disease that predominantly affects apocrine glands areas. This nosology is characterized by painful nodes, abscesses, and fistulas, prone to relapses and leading to scarring.Clinical case description. The authors present a clinical case demonstrating the combination of Rapp-Hodgkin syndrome and severe hidradenitis suppurativa in 17-year-old male patient.Conclusion. The heterogeneous clinical findings of hidradenitis suppurativa and history of rare genetic disease result in patients' admissions to various medical specialists. Thus, it leads to delayed verification of the diagnosis and incorrect treatment methods. As a result, patients have persistent cosmetic skin defects, possible complications of irrational treatment, and decreased quality of life by the time of diagnosis.

Acne is chronic inflammatory skin disease. Its examination and management tactics depend on the patient's age and disease clinical form. This article presents treatment algorithms for acne vulgaris in adolescent and pre-adolescent children and describes clinical cases.

Background. Linear IgA dermatosis is a rare autoimmune bullous disease characterized by vesiculo-bullous subepidermal lesions (affecting the skin and mucous membranes) and by linear homogeneous IgA deposition in the epidermis basal membrane.Clinical case description. Clinical case of linear IgA dermatosis in children is presented. Clinical data assessment, histological examination of the skin biopsy (to determine the depth of bullous), immunofluorescent examination (to reveal IgA deposition in the epidermis basal membrane) are crucial for reliable disease diagnosis according to the studies. Altogether it helps to establish the final diagnosis and determine the patient's management. Dapsone is the first-line treatment for this disease, it has proven to be an effective and safe medication.Conclusion. This case of linear IgA dermatosis is of concern due to disease severity and its rarity in clinical practice. Differential diagnosis is rather complicated and clinically requires high-tech research methods. Only immunofluorescent examination allows to diagnose linear IgA dermatosis accurately. Lesions' regression was achieved due to systemic therapy with dapsone (1.8 mg/kg/day).

Background. Excessive colonization of the skin by various bacteria and fungi can be noted in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), and the prevalence of secondary infection complications 30–48%. Several studies have shown that Staphylococcus aureus colonization is 60–100% in patients with AD compared to 5–30% in healthy persons from the control group. Moreover, the incidence of methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates is up to 10–30% in skin cultures at AD, according to experts. Therapy of AD complicated by secondary infection is one of the crucial challenges of modern dermatology. Mupirocin can be considered as one of the most effective topical antibiotic among others used for etiotropic therapy of infectious complications in AD patients, and it has been confirmed by numerous clinical studies.Conclusion. Staphylococcus aureus is the most common trigger of AD aggravation. MRSA in AD complicated by secondary infection is difficult to manage as it becomes resistant to many types of antibiotics; however, it shows persistent sensitivity to mupirocin. Mupirocin-based (2%) external agent is the most effective, safe, and preferred therapy variant for AD complicated by secondary infection in pediatrics.

Background. Pemphigus herpetiformis is a rare atypical bullous dermatosis of autoimmune nature. It is characterized by rashes in the form of plaques with papules and vesicles at peripheral areas, or in the form of grouped papules, vesicles or tense bubbles with clinical similarity to During's herpetiformis dermatitis. Pemphigus herpetiformis diagnosis in pediatric practice is difficult due to the similarity of clinical manifestations to bullous dermatoses of other etiology, the rarity of the disease in children, and small number of scientific publications.Clinical case description. Clinical case of pemphigus herpetiformis in a child is described. All necessary diagnostic algorithms for diagnosis and therapeutic tactics for patient management are presented. Dapsone and prednisolone were used as first-line drugs during the patient's treatment. They have shown its efficacy in management of such patients.Conclusion. Differential diagnosis of pemphigus herpetiformis and other bullous dermatoses in children is presented. The results of successful drug treatment are shown.

Background. Hypotrichosis is a heritable form of alopecia that causes almost complete scalp hair loss in childhood. The diagnosis is typically established according to medical history and clinical picture. Genetic testing is an additional diagnostic method that allows to establish “hypotrichosis” in cases of ambiguous or subtle clinical signs of the disease, as well as to perform differential diagnosis of this condition with others commonly associated with atopic dermatitis (focal and diffuse alopecia). Clinical diagnosis of hypotrichosis in patients with severe dermatosis is challenging.Clinical case description. The girl, aged 2 years 4 months, was hospitalized with complaints on extended rash on the body with severe itching, and changes in hair thickness, quality of hair shaft, and hair loss. Severe atopic dermatitis and hypotrichosis were diagnosed. The diagnosis of atopic dermatitis was established clinically (SCORAD — 65), the diagnosis of hypotrichosis (type 6, monilethrix-like hypotrichosis) was confirmed via molecular genetic testing (nucleotide variant c.699C>T in exone 13 of the DSG4 gene (OMIM # 607892)). Patient's mother, brother, and two sisters were diagnosed with the nucleotide variant chr18:31409487C>T in heterozygous state in the DSG4 gene. Mother and brother had no clinical manifestations, while both sisters had mild scalp hair damage, as well as eyebrows and eyelashes, since birth. There were no clinical manifestations of atopic dermatitis in parents and other children in the family.Conclusion. Hypotrichosis clinical signs can be subtled, smoothed, or imitate the symptoms of other comorbid conditions, especially in patients with comorbidities or severe dermatosis. Also worth noting is that changes in certain genes can aggravate the course of atopic dermatitis. In this clinical case, mutation in the DSG4 gene leads to epidermal barrier failure by disrupting the synthesis of desmosomes transmembrane components. Thus, geneticist consultation and genetic testing (search for changes in certain genes) are crucial in such cases.

Background. Atopic dermatitis (AD) manifests during the first year of life in majority of all cases. The early disease onset is associated with the development of comorbid atopic conditions within the «atopic march» phenomenon. The AD pathogenesis is associated with genetic predisposition, epidermal barrier dysfunction, and immune dysregulation. T2-inflammation specifically determines the entire immune cascade of inflammatory reactions, and, thus, dictates the need of early drug intervention to modify the disease course. Clinical case description. This article presents two clinical cases of severe AD in children under 6 years of age. The treatment of both cases included genetically engineered biologic drug dupilumab. Continuous therapy for 4–5 months made it possible to relieve the skin manifestations of the disease.Conclusion. AD, manifesting in infancy, is associated with high risk of developing other atopic spectrum diseases in older age. The timely onset of biological therapy allows us to affect immune dysregulation, and thereby to prevent the comorbid atopic conditions development.

Background. Epidermolisys bullosa pruriginosa is a rare pattern of dystrophic epidermolisys bullosa and characterized by severe itching that accompanies the formation of papules, plaques and nodes primarily on the lower limbs skin and imitating prurigo nodularis. Nowadays, less than 100 cases of this disease are reported in the world, thus, the presentation of this clinical case is relevant. Clinical case description. The authors describe the clinical case of pruriginous pattern of dominant dystrophic bullous epidermolysis in 14-year-old female patient. Conclusion. Diagnosis of this disease pattern is extremely difficult and currently all treatment is limited to the symptomatic therapy in order to stop itching and prevent scarring.

Background. Kindler epidermolysis bullosa is orphan, autosomal recessive disease and it is one of the variants of congenital epidermolysis bullosa. Its severe course is characterized by high risk of multifactorial malnutrition, chronic inflammation due to recurrent secondary skin infections, and also bone metabolism disorders, what can lead to disorders in physical development and puberty in children. However, the effect of Kindler epidermolysis bullosa on patients’ physical development and puberty remains unexplored.Clinical case description. Family case of Kindler epidermolysis bullosa was presented in 13 and 12 years old patients, third degree of kinship (maternal, uncle — nephew) with typical clinical manifestations for this disease. The diagnosis was confirmed in both patients via Sanger sequencing and revealing identical pathogenic variants in the FERMT1 gene (two deletions in the compound-heterozygous state — c.778del, p.Q260Kfs*21 and c.1088del, p. L363Wfs*39). Reduced concentrations of testosterone and 25(OH)D were revealed, whereas, increased concentration of adrenocorticotropic hormone — only in the older patient. The concentrations of luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone and estradiol in both patients were within the reference values. The younger patient had prepubertal sizes and volume of testicles. Both patients had specific features of psychoemotional state: mood swing with rapid increase in anxiety level in the older patient and difficulties in emotional-volitional regulation in younger one.Conclusion. Patients with Kindler epidermolysis bullosa have high risk of physical development and puberty delay due to its systemic chronic pathological process. Thus, these patients require dynamic follow-up by pediatrician and pediatric endocrinologist.

The management of geriatric patients should be based on a comprehensive assessment of their needs realized through a comprehensive geriatric assessment, identification and correction of existing geriatric syndromes. However, the tactics of managing patients of older age groups may vary depending on the age category and the presence of senile asthenia syndrome. In the presented clinical case, the tests, scales and questionnaires that are most often used in conducting a comprehensive geriatric assessment are described, allowing to identify geriatric syndromes and assess their severity.

Human glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a primary malignant brain tumor, a radically incurable disease characterized by rapid growth resistance to classical therapies, with a median patient survival of about 15 months. For decades, a plethora of approaches have been developed to make GBM therapy more precise and improve the diagnosis of this pathology. Targeted delivery mediated by the use of various molecules (monoclonal antibodies, ligands to overexpressed tumor receptors) is one of the promising methods to achieve this goal. Here we present a novel genetically encoded nanoscale dual-labeled system based on Quasibacillus thermotolerans (Qt) encapsulins exploiting biologically inspired designs with iron-containing nanoparticles as a cargo, conjugated with human fluorescent labeled transferrin (Tf) acting as a vector. It is known that the expression of transferrin receptors (TfR) in glioma cells is significantly higher compared to non-tumor cells, which enables the targeting of the resulting nanocarrier. The selectivity of binding of the obtained nanosystem to glioma cells was studied by qualitative and quantitative assessment of the accumulation of intracellular iron, as well as by magnetic particle quantification method and laser scanning confocal microscopy. Used approaches unambiguously demonstrated that transferrin-conjugated encapsulins were captured by glioma cells much more efficiently than by benign cells. The resulting bioinspired nanoplatform can be supplemented with a chemotherapeutic drug or genotherapeutic agent and used for targeted delivery of a therapeutic agent to malignant glioma cells. Additionally, the observed cell-assisted biosynthesis of magnetic nanoparticles could be an attractive way to achieve a narrow size distribution of particles for various applications.