Bakker DS, van der Wal MM, Heeb LEM, et al. - In moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis patients, researchers analyzed the short- and long-term impacts of dupilumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting the interleukin-4 receptor alpha (IL-4Rα), treatment on IL-4Rα expression and T-cell cytokine production within total and skin-homing (CLA+/CCR4+) subpopulations. Within 2 hours of administration and through week 52, dupilumab treatment completely blocked IL-4Rα expression and STAT-6 phosphorylation in CD19+ B-cells and CD4+ T-cells. Dupilumab treatment significantly lowered the percentage of proliferating (Ki67+) and Th2/Th22 cytokine-producing skin-homing CD4+ T-cells already at week 4, even though they found no change in the proportion of skin-homing T-cell subsets. There was no evidence of general Th-cell skewing following a year of dupilumab treatment. IL-4Rα was rapidly and stably inhibited with dupilumab therapy, followed by a strong early functional immunological impact, especially on skin-homing T-cells, without influencing long-term overall Th-cell skewing.