Impact of AI-Augmented informed consent on preoperative anxiety and patient understanding: A prospective Observational Study.

Skin diseases represent one of the most prevalent and socially disruptive global health burdens, affecting billions of individuals across all age groups and geographical regions. Current epidemiological data indicate that over 4.69 billion people worldwide suffer from diverse cutaneous disorders, ranking skin diseases as the fourth leading cause of global non-fatal disease burden in terms of disability-adjusted life years and years lived with disability. Common chronic inflammatory skin conditions, including acne vulgaris, psoriasis, and atopic dermatitis, induce persistent erythema, pruritus, scaling, and recurrent skin lesions, which severely compromise patients’ psychological well-being, social interaction, and long-term quality of life. In addition, these disorders impose enormous socioeconomic pressure worldwide, characterized by continuous healthcare consumption, repeated outpatient interventions, and reduced social productivity, constituting a substantial public health challenge. Conventional first-line therapies, including topical glucocorticoids, antibiotics, and synthetic anti-inflammatory agents, have alleviated cutaneous symptoms to a certain extent. However, their clinical application is greatly restricted by inherent limitations, such as drug resistance, high recurrence rates, skin barrier damage, and undesirable systemic side effects, resulting in suboptimal long-term therapeutic outcomes and creating an urgent clinical demand for novel, safe, and multi-targeted therapeutic strategies for skin diseases. Lactoferrin (LTF), a multifunctional non-heme iron-binding glycoprotein of the transferrin family, has emerged as a promising natural therapeutic candidate for cutaneous disorders. First isolated and purified from human milk in 1960, LTF has attracted extensive research attention in life sciences, medicine, and food science due to its versatile physiological functions. It is ubiquitously distributed in human breast milk and various mucosal secretions, participating in the maintenance of human physiological homeostasis. Structurally, LTF exhibits a typical single-chain bilobal configuration consisting of two homologous N-lobe and C-lobe domains, each possessing an independent high-affinity iron-binding site that reversibly chelates ferric iron. This unique iron-chelating property enables LTF to regulate local iron homeostasis, eliminate iron-dependent oxidative damage, and deprive pathogenic microorganisms of essential iron nutrients required for proliferation. Functionally, the biological activities of LTF are predominantly receptor-dependent. LTF specifically binds to membrane receptors including low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 and intelectin-1 on keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and multiple immune cells. After receptor-mediated internalization, LTF modulates core intracellular signaling cascades, principally inhibiting the pro-inflammatory NF-κB pathway and activating the antioxidant Nrf2 pathway. Through these structural and molecular regulatory mechanisms, LTF exerts comprehensive antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory bioactivities, which are closely and specifically correlated with the core pathogenic mechanisms of diverse skin diseases. The multitargeted properties of LTF precisely target typical pathological abnormalities in dermatological disorders. Its antibacterial capacity improves cutaneous microbial dysbiosis, a critical initiating factor driving the occurrence and progression of acne vulgaris. The potent antioxidant activity of LTF scavenges excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS), relieving oxidative stress injury, delaying skin aging, and mitigating ultraviolet-induced cutaneous carcinogenesis. Moreover, LTF modulates immune cell maturation, proliferation, and cytokine secretion, effectively correcting immune dysregulation and suppressing sustained chronic inflammatory cascades, which are the central pathological features of psoriasis, inflammatory acne, and other inflammatory dermatoses. In addition, LTF promotes keratinocyte migration and proliferation, repairs impaired cellular metabolism, and ameliorates defective skin tissue regeneration, showing great potential for cutaneous wound healing. Accumulating clinical evidence has validated the dermatological efficacy and safety of LTF., Oral supplementation of LTF combined with vitamin E and zinc can significantly reduce the number of comedones and inflammatory lesions in acne patients. Topical LTF ointment markedly improves erythema, scaling, and plaque elevation in patients with mild-to-moderate plaque psoriasis, serving as a reliable adjunctive therapeutic option for inflammatory skin diseases.