Intralesional immunotherapy with Candida safe and cheap option for treatment of cutaneous warts: Study

Against the above background, Eman M. Kamal Youssef from Assiut University in Asyût, Egypt, and colleagues compared the efficacy and safety of intralesional candida antigen to intralesional 2% zinc sulfate for warts treatment in a prospective controlled clinical trial.

The trial included one hundred and five patients presenting with plantar, common, and plane warts. They were randomly categorized into three groups, each group comprising 35 patients. In Group 1, patients were treated with intralesional candida antigen (Ag) 1/100; in Group 2, they were treated with intralesional candida Ag 1/1000; and in Group 3 treated with intralesional zinc sulfate 2%.

The researchers found that target warts of group 1 displayed a higher rate of complete clearance than group 2 and group 3 (94.3%, 77.1, 74.2%), respectively.

"We found intralesional immunotherapy with Candida antigen to be more effective and less painful than intralesional 2% zinc sulfate for treating cutaneous warts and less," the researchers wrote. "Both IL Candida 1/100 and 1/1000 concentrations were effective, tolerable, and showed nearly the same efficacy."

There are significant advantages of intralesional Candida Ag and IL zinc sulfate immunotherapy over other treatments for warts, like clearance of distant warts and single injection sites. It's a cheap, simple, safe and effective procedure with no scarring risk at the intervention sites. It can be used as an alternative modality to treat plane, common, and plantar warts, either new or resistant.

Reference:

Youssef, E.M.K., Eissa, MAA & Bakr, RM Intralesional Candida albicans antigen versus intralesional zinc sulfate in treatment of cutaneous warts. Arch Dermatol Res (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-022-02499-w