Cancer Drug To Cure Hair Loss? Researchers Answer

Now a new study is offering hope of a possible cure for baldness one day. Drugs on the market to grow hair were all discovered by accident – Propecia was found to grow hair as a side-effect of treating enlarged prostates, and Latisse, sold to grow eyelashes, was discovered as a side-effect of a glaucoma treatment.

The study raises the possibility that drugs known as JAK inhibitors could be used to restore hair growth in multiple forms of hair loss such as that induced by male pattern baldness, and additional types that occur when hair follicles are trapped in a resting state.

Researchers from the Columbia University Medical Center have tested and found excellent results on mice of two drugs promoting hair growth.

Researchers are reporting progress in the quest for a drug that can regrow hair.

Drugs approved by the FDA to combat cancer and rheumatoid arthritis might help in the fight against hair loss, according to new research.

The two treatments which have been recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration both work by inhibiting the activity of Janus kinase (JAK) enzymes.

He argues that there is a difference between "hair loss" and "hair growth" saying that with the result of the study, the drugs may not be helpful to people with atrophic hair follicles.

During work with mice during that study, they found that applying the drugs on the skin caused more hair to grow than when the drugs were given to rodents systemically.

Angela Christiano, one of the researchers behind the recently reported findings, was quoted by NBC News as having said that after rubbing the compound onto the skin of bald mice for five days straight, hair sprouted within 10 days and after just a few weeks, it had come in "beautifully" and "very thickly".

Hair follicles do not produce hair steadily, but cycle between dormant and active phases.

But he added, "More work needs to be done to translate these findings to a product which can be tested in a clinical trial on people".

No hair grew on control mice within the same amount of time. They could provide exceptionally useful for people who fear hair loss, or might already be developing it. For now, it's just a problem that most learn to live with. While the drug combination has not been tried in humans, human hair follicles grown in a dish and grafted onto the mice grew longer than the mice's own hair.

'Some topical agents induce tufts of hair here and there after a few weeks, but very few compounds have this potent an effect so quickly'. Treatments, such as Rogaine, are available for hair loss, but they have limited powers.

Source: Cancer Drug To Cure Hair Loss? Researchers Answer