Possibly, this comes as a good news for people struggling with hair fall and baldness as scientists have recently made an astonishing discovery about a drug that was used for treating osteoporosis. This drug can stimulate hair growth 3 times more quickly as compared to other drugs used to treat baldness.
Male pattern baldness is a common matter of concern for men. It is estimated that 4 out of every 10 men develop this condition by the time they are 45 years old and nearly 2/3rd of the total population has this condition by the age of 60. [1]
At present, there are only 2 drugs that are used to treat androgenetic alopecia – finasteride and minoxidil. However, both of these drugs are known to have a number of side effects and the results are often disappointing. The only other option for men struggling with this condition is hair transplantation that involves surgery.
In order to find a new cure to this global problem, scientists at Manchester University did an extensive study on a cancer drug, known as CsA, which possess an embarrassing side effect of promoting excessive, unwanted hair growth. The team discovered the mechanism through which, the drug promote hair growth. It was found that it works by decreasing the activity of a protein, called SFRPI, which is known to prevent the growth of hair follicles.
Although CsA is not suitable for hair growth in itself due to its severe side effects, researchers observed that the drug WAY-316606, which was earlier developed to treat osteoporosis, performed better in targeting hair-suppressing protein.
For testing the effectiveness of the drug, follicles donated by more than 40 patients, who were undergoing hair transplantation, were treated with the drug. It was observed that these follicles went into a vigorous phase of hair growth after the drug treatment, wherein 2 mm long hair sprouted within 6 days.
Dr. Nathan Hawkshaw, the lead scientist of the project, commented that the drug maintained more number of hair follicles in the growth phase as compared to the control. Moreover, the drug promoted the production of hair shaft keratin. These encouraging results suggest that WAY-316606 can be further explored to treat human hair growth disorders.Scientists at Manchester University published a report in Plos Biology about discovering a property of osteoporosis drug WA-316606 that can be helpful in treating male pattern baldness. This drug showed better results as compared to anti-cancer drug, CsA. Find out more here.
CsA was found to take 6 days to stimulate hair growth, whereas WAY-316606 showed remarkable hair growth in just 2 days. This feature of the drug shows that it has a lot of potential to be used for treating hair loss and make a significant difference in the lives of people battling everyday with this condition.
This research also threw some light on the mechanism by which CsA causes unwanted hair growth in people. It was revealed that it does so by removing an inbuilt and potent molecular check on hair growth.
The results of the study was published in the journal, Plos Biology. [2]
