From arthritis, cancer and alopecia
A powerful remedy for baldness was obtained from drugs for cancer and arthritis
Scientists have come close to creating a new type of effective remedies for baldness: in the USA, they accidentally found out that blocking the activity of a certain enzyme with drugs for cancer and arthritis causes hair follicles to quickly come out of a state of rest and start hair growth. The new therapy is described in the journal Science Advances (Harel et al., Pharmacological inhibition of JAK-STAT signaling promotes hair growth, in open access), and Gizmag (FDA-approved drugs show promise for rapid and robust hair regrowth) reports briefly about it.
Scientists from Columbia University were looking for new drugs for focal alopecia – pathological hair loss due to damage to the cells of their root system by immune defense factors. The researchers worked with two well-known drugs for other diseases, the concomitant effect of which is blocking the action of Janus kinase enzymes in hair follicles. It turned out that when taken orally, they turn off the signals leading to an autoimmune reaction, and normal hair growth is restored in some patients.
However, scientists noticed that when smearing the drug on the skin, it turned out to be more effective. As part of a new project, they conducted experiments with bald mice. After five days of therapy, the experimental animals began to grow hair after ten days, and after three weeks their hair cover was almost restored. In addition, such therapy proved to be effective in the treatment of human follicles in vitro.
A snapshot from an article in Science Advances
Scientists believe that Janus kinase inhibitors mimic the natural cycle of hair follicles: normally, these enzymes immerse the follicles in a state of rest, and their blocking helps the bulbs stuck in a "dream" to wake up and move to the active stage.
"There are not many compounds that can push follicles to the growth stage so quickly. Some drugs give a couple of tufts of hair after a few weeks of use, but almost nothing has such a powerful effect," said Angela Christiano, the project manager.
Two drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were used in the experiments: one (ruxolitinib) – for rare forms of blood cancer, the other (tofacitinib) – for rheumatoid arthritis. The timing of the creation of a human drug based on them has not yet been reported.
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27.10.2015