Next-generation anti–Staphylococcus aureus vaccines: A potential new therapeutic option for atopic dermatitis?

Disease severity in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) is directly correlated with colonization by Staphylococcus aureus.1 An increasing body of evidence now also supports a role for S aureus in the pathogenesis of AD in genetically susceptible subjects.2 Increased prevalence of S aureus preceding and coinciding with AD onset in an infant cohort suggests that early skin colonization can contribute to the development of clinical AD.3 However, these findings only partially explain the complex role of this organism given that another birth cohort4 did not demonstrate S aureus colonization before development of infantile AD but did show a protective effect of commensal staphylococci against later development of AD.