Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) plays an important role in maintaining skin health and can promote the differentiation of keratinocytes and decrease melanin synthesis, leading to antioxidant protection against UV-induced photodamage. Normal skin needs high concentrations of vitamin C, which plays many roles in the skin, including the formation of the skin barrier and collagen in the dermis, the ability to counteract skin oxidation, and the modulation of cell signal pathways of cell growth and differentiation. However, vitamin C deficiency can cause or aggravate the occurrence and development of some skin diseases, such as atopic dermatitis (AD) and porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT). Levels of vitamin C in plasma are decreased in AD, and vitamin C deficiency may be one of the factors that contributes to the pathogenesis of PCT. On the other hand, high doses of vitamin C have significantly reduced cancer cell viability, as well as invasiveness, and induced apoptosis in human malignant melanoma. In this review, we will summarize the effects of vitamin C on four skin diseases (porphyria cutanea tarda, atopic dermatitis, malignant melanoma, and herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia) and highlight the potential of vitamin C as a therapeutic strategy to treat these diseases, emphasizing the clinical application of vitamin C as an adjuvant for drugs or physical therapy in other skin diseases.

BackgroundThe 2014–2015 epidemic of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa defines an unprecedented health threat for human.MethodsWe construct a mathematical model to devise the optimal Ebola virus disease eradication plan. We used mathematical model to investigate the numerical spread of Ebola and eradication pathways, further fit our model against the real total cases data and calculated infection rate as 1.754.ResultsWith incorporating hospital isolation and application of medication in our model and analyzing their effect on resisting the spread, we demonstrate the second peak of 10,029 total cases in 23 days, and expect to eradicate EVD in 285 days. Using the regional spread of EVD with our transmission model analysis, we analyzed the numbers of new infections through four important transmission paths including household, community, hospital and unsafe funeral.ConclusionsBased on the result of the model, we find out the key paths in different situations and propose our suggestion to control regional transmission. We fully considers Ebola characteristics, economic and time optimization, dynamic factors and local condition constraints, and to make our plan realistic, sensible and feasible.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-017-1224-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The human pathogenic yeast genus Malassezia may be an etiological agent of skin disorders and has received considerable attention from dermatologists in recent years. To investigate the different susceptibilities of Malassezia species to four antifungal drugs, we isolated a total of 244 Malassezia strains and identified six species of Malassezia from patients with clinical skin diseases. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the four antifungal drugs was obtained by comparing the susceptibility of the isolated Malassezia strains to four antifungal drugs (ketoconazole (KTZ), itraconazole (ITZ), fluconazole (FLC) and amphotericin B (Am B)). We demonstrated that M. furfur, M. sympodialis, M. pachydermatis and M. globosa are the most common Malassezia species in the three skin diseases. The MICs of KTZ, ITZ, FLC and Am B against M. furfur, M. sympodialis, M. pachydermatis and M. globosa ranged from 0.03 -16 mg/L, 0.03 -2.0 mg/L, 0.03 -8 mg/L, and 13 -64 mg/L, respectively. The sensitivities of Malassezia to the four antifungal drugs from high to low were ITZ ! KTZ > Am B > FLC. The susceptibilities of the various Malassezia species to the four antifungal drugs were different, and the susceptibility of M. furfur to KTZ was significantly different from those of the three skin diseases (pityriasis versicolor, Malassezia folliculitis and seborrheic dermatitis). Our results suggested that the MIC analysis of the four antifungal drugs would be helpful in preventing drug resistance in the clinical screening of Malassezia and choosing better antifungal drugs to treat Malassezia-associated skin diseases.