New cure for hair loss developed by South Korean scientists

Scientists from South Korea developed a substance that starts new hair follicle growth. This opens new doors for the treatment of hair loss and might help in slowing hair loss or enhancing growth of hair.

Yonsei University professor, Choi Kang and his team developed a product, which triggers new hair follicle growth. This research was funded by Science Ministry as a part of its research support program.

Choi and his team developed a protein, known as CXXC-type zinc finger protein 5, which attaches itself to the dishevelled protein. Due to this binding, Wnt signaling pathway, which initiates hair follicle development, gets disturbed or interrupted. Based on this finding, researchers developed a biochemical substance PTD-DBM, which prevents CXXC from binding with the dishevelled protein. This study, when conducted on mice, showed positive results.

The study was published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. The new drug is different from the existing treatments of hair loss that aim at slowing down the process of hair loss or speeding up the growth of hair. These do not work in cases, where there is a complete loss of hair follicles. Moreover, existing hair loss treatments have many side effects too.

The newly developed substance not only offers treatment for hair loss, but regenerate damaged skin tissues. Studies are being carried out to find out if the substance has toxic properties.

Current hair loss treatments do not focus on providing a permanent solution. Instead, these focus on just managing the symptoms. There are two drugs approved by the US FDA for the treatment of hair loss: Rogaine and Finasteride.

Source: asiaone.com