East Indian Sandalwood Oil (EISO) Alleviates Inflammatory and Proliferative Pathologies of Psoriasis

Abstract

Psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease marked by hyper proliferation and aberrant differentiation of keratinocytes, affects 2–3% of the world’s population. Research into the pathogenesis of psoriasis has been hampered by the lack of models that accurately reflect the biology of the psoriatic phenotype. We have previously reported that East Indian Sandalwood oil (EISO) has significant anti-inflammatory properties in skin models and hypothesized that EISO might provide therapeutic benefit to psoriasis patients due to its anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative properties. Here we present interim results from an on-going proof-of-concept Phase 2 clinical trial in which topically applied EISO is demonstrating to be well tolerated and helpful in alleviating mild to moderate psoriasis symptoms. This led us to evaluate the ability of EISO to affect the psoriatic phenotype using MatTek Corporation reconstituted organotypic psoriatic and normal human skin models. EISO had no impact on the phenotype of the normal skin tissue model, however, EISO treatment of the psoriasis tissue model reverted psoriatic pathology as demonstrated by histologic characterization and expression of keratinocyte proliferation markers, Ki67 and psoriasin. These phenotypic affects correlated with suppressed production of ENA-78, IL-6, IL-8, MCP-1, GM-CSF, and IL-1β. Demonstration of the ability of EISO to abrogate these psoriasis symptoms in well-characterized in vitro psoriatic tissue models, supports the hypothesis that the clinically observed symptom alleviation is due to suppression of intrinsic tissue inflammation reactions in afflicted lesions. This study presents a systematic approach to further study the underlying mechanisms that cause psoriasis, and presents data supporting the potential of EISO as a new ethnobotanical therapeutic concept to help direct and accelerate the development of more effective therapies.

East Indian sandalwood (Santalum album L.) oil confers neuroprotection and geroprotection inCaenorhabditis elegans viaactivating SKN-1/Nrf2 signaling pathway

“… 1 , 2 Some preclinical and clinical research using an integrated approach has demonstrated that EISO and its active principles showed a broad spectrum of pharmacological activities, including chemopreventive, 3 – 5 antihyperglycemic, antioxidant, 6 antineoplastic, 7 , 8 antiviral 9 and anti-inflammatory activities. 10 , 11 However, the potential benefits of EISO treatment in preserving neural health and the underlying protective mechanisms from intracellular destructive stimuli and extracellular physiological changes are yet to be elucidated.…”

East Indian Sandalwood Oil Is a Phosphodiesterase Inhibitor: A New Therapeutic Option in the Treatment of Inflammatory Skin Disease

“…Pharmaceutical-grade EISO (lot: PISO-110904SD/SA) was obtained from Santalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (San Antonio, TX, United States). Constituent analysis and its compliance with the international standard for Indian sandalwood oil (ISO 3518:2002) has been previously reported ( Sharma et al, 2017 ). EISO was diluted in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as a 10% (v/v) stock.…”

“…Natural products remain the best source for the development of new therapies because of their structural diversity and they do not match any source of small molecules ( Newman and Cragg, 2012 ). While widely used in aromatherapy, the essential oil from Indian sandalwood trees, Santalum album (Santalaceae) , commonly known as East Indian sandalwood oil (EISO), is a potent anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and astringent agent ( Burdock and Carabin, 2008 ; Sharma et al, 2014 ; Bommareddy et al, 2017 ), properties ideal for treatment of inflammatory skin disorders as has been reported for psoriasis ( Sharma et al, 2017 ) and acne ( Moy et al, 2012 ).…”

A phase II, proof-of-concept pilot clinical study of a mouth rinse containing sandalwood album oil (SAO) for the prevention of oral and oropharyngeal mucositis associated with (Chemo-) radiation therapy in head and neck cancer patients

“…Sandalwood album oil (SAO; also known as East Indian sandalwood oil (EISO)) is an essential oil that has previously been shown to be anti-inflammatory [14,15] and active against a variety of pathogens, including Candida [16][17][18].…”