ArticleThe Journal of allergy and clinical immunology2021
Staphylococcus epidermidis protease EcpA can be a deleterious component of the skin microbiome in atopic dermatitis.
Article in The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 112 papers.
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Who cites it
112 citing papers in PubMed.
- Trial
- The Skin Microbiome of Patients With Atopic Dermatitis Normalizes Gradually During Treatment.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2021Trial
- Synergistic tissue destruction byBiofilm · 2026Article
- Beyond Inflammation: The Role of Oxidative Stress and Gut-Skin Axis Dysbiosis in the Pathogenesis of Immune-Mediated Skin Disorders and Potential Therapeutic Implications.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- SkinApplied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- A comparative analysis of skin bacteria in healthy individuals through traditional cultivation and high-throughput sequencing techniques.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Keratinocytes: pleiotropic orchestrators of cutaneous immunity and Inflammation - Emerging therapeutic paradigms in dermatological pathologies.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2026Review
- Dysbiosis in the Pathogenesis of Atopic Dermatitis.The Journal of dermatology · 2026Review
- Atopic Dermatitis-like mouse model using early inoculation of patient-derivedJID innovations : skin science from molecules to population health · 2026Article
- Staphylococcus aureus in atopic dermatitis: How a common bacterium exploits and drives disease.The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology · 2026Review
- The Evolution of Symbiosis inBiomolecules · 2026Review
- The Scalp Microbiome-Hair Axis: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Translation.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Review
- Article
- Atopic dermatitis and the gut-skin axis: a review from dysbiosis to novel targeted therapeutic strategies.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Dynamic remodeling of skin microbiota during healthy homeostatic and wound repair conditions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Environmental and skin-nasal microbiome variation in South African children with atopic dermatitis.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- An antimicrobial daptide from human skin commensal Staphylococcus hominis protects against skin pathogens.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The human skin microbiome: from metagenomes to therapeutics.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2025Review
- A novel enzymatic approach for a targeted fungal growth inhibition.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- Advances in Atopic Dermatitis Treatment: From Pathogenesis to Natural Product-Based Therapies.Phytotherapy research : PTR · 2025Review
52 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundStaphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis are the most abundant bacteria found on the skin of patients with atopic dermatitis (AD). S aureus is known to exacerbate AD, whereas S epidermidis has been considered a beneficial commensal organism.
objectiveIn this study, we hypothesized that S epidermidis could promote skin damage in AD by the production of a protease that damages the epidermal barrier.
methodsThe protease activity of S epidermidis isolates was compared with that of other staphylococcal species. The capacity of S epidermidis to degrade the barrier and induce inflammation was examined by using human keratinocyte tissue culture and mouse models. Skin swabs from atopic and healthy adult subjects were analyzed for the presence of S epidermidis genomic DNA and mRNA.
resultsS epidermidis strains were observed to produce strong cysteine protease activity when grown at high density. The enzyme responsible for this activity was identified as EcpA, a cysteine protease under quorum sensing control. EcpA was shown to degrade desmoglein-1 and LL-37 in vitro, disrupt the physical barrier, and induce skin inflammation in mice. The abundance of S epidermidis and expression of ecpA mRNA were increased on the skin of some patients with AD, and this correlated with disease severity. Another commensal skin bacterial species, Staphylococcus hominis, can inhibit EcpA production by S epidermidis.
conclusionS epidermidis has commonly been regarded as a beneficial skin microbe, whereas S aureus has been considered deleterious. This study suggests that the overabundance of S epidermidis found on some atopic patients can act similarly to S aureus and damage the skin by expression of a cysteine protease.
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