A miracle drug for baldness may have been discovered…
The drug that created a side effect of unwanted full body hair growth may hold the key to a new treatment and researchers from the University of Manchester think they have found a way to harness the side effect to get dormant hair follicles to grow again.
The new report in the journal PLOS Biology, said researchers initially began their study by looking at an old immunosuppressive drug called Cyclosporine A (CsA), which is used to treat autoimmune diseases and suppress organ rejection after transplants.
The drug has known side effects, including unwanted hair growth, but now, after studying how the drug affects hair follicles, the team realized CsA reduces the expression of a protein that inhibits the growth of many tissues, including hair follicles.
The researchers went on to say that after further investigation, they found another drug that targets the same protein – but one that carries much fewer side effects.
That drug is WAY-316606, a compound originally developed to treat osteoporosis. They tested the compound on human hair follicles grown in a lab, and found that it effectively helped hair growth.
The team says if the drug can be applied externally, directly to a balding human scalp, it could “wake up” resting hair follicles and cause them to begin to grow again, without risking the side effects of taking the drug internally.
Of course although some say this may be the answer to baldness, others aren’t so sure citing that the real issue with hair loss is DHT (dihydrotestosterone)… a byproduct of testosterone. Medical experts explain that some men are simply doomed to develop baldness, technically known as “androgenetic alopecia.”
There are currently two medications to treat baldness – finasteride and minoxidil –which are effective in about 80 per cent of men. But both often produce disappointing regrowth and have side effects that can include impotence. As well, once the medications are stopped, hair loss begins again.
Still, although the new information is still too new to confirm what it means for baldness treatment, it could be one more tool that will bring those hairs out of a resting phase to an active phase.
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