Category Archives: FOXO4-p53

FOXO4, Anti-Aging and Hair Growth

I previously wrote about FOXO4 in a post in March 2017 that covered Dr. Peter de Keizer and his groundbreaking findings. In brief, interference via a newly created modified FOXO4-p53 peptide caused senescent cell apoptosis (death) in mice. Subsequently, the mice became younger and healthier. Most importantly, the mice regrew thick and robust coats of fur.

In the above study, the FOXO4 peptide was created in a D-retro inverso (DRI)-isoform conformation and named FOXO4-DRI. The anti-aging and hair growth related findings of this work were widely covered by the media in 2017. Dr. Keizer thereafter started his own biotech company called Cleara Biotech.

Senescent Cells

I have written about senescent cells (undesirable) and senolytics a number of times in the past. In an interview with Dr. de Keizer, he mentioned the following:

“If you remove the senescent cells, it means the (neighboring) stem cells can differentiate again, supporting tissue rejuvenation.”

Also make sure to read my related post on NAD, NMN and Resveratrol for aging reversal.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment

Earlier this week, an anti-aging breakthrough from Israel was widely covered in the media. Apparently, giving pure oxygen to older people while in a hyperbaric chamber increased the length of their telomeres by 20 percent. More details here.

This development is impressive because it resulted in both:

  1. Telomere Elongation. And:
  2. Senescent Cell Reduction.

There have already been other methods via which people have increased their telomere length, including TA-65, exercise, diet and caloric restriction. However, this new hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) protocol led to elongation of telomeres at higher rates in comparison to existing interventions.

Using FOXO4 for Hair Growth

I was not planning to write about the above findings from last week as there did not seem to be any connection to hair loss.

However, earlier today, reader “egghead” posted a new link to the same story. More importantly, he made an astute observation in regards to the video at the bottom of the just mentioned Aljazeera link. He watched it entirely, and found an example of hair growth from FOXO4-DRI in the second half of the video.

Unfortunately, I cannot embed the video here, but below is the most relevant screenshot:

FOXO4-DRI Hair Growth.
Using FOXO4-DRI for hair growth.

FOXO4-DRI

Apparently, many people have been taking commercially available versions of the FOXO4-DRI peptide. Both for longevity reasons and, in rare cases, for hair growth. The above screenshot is from someone named Darren Moore whose foxoddri website is no longer active. However, you can still read this article about his before and after hair growth.

Although Darren initially regrew his hair and it became darker, it seems like he lost most of the gains per this interesting 2019 video about him. During a brief perusal of Darren’s blog, I noticed that several commentators posted that they saw darker and fuller hair when taking FOXO4-DRI. There is also a 29-page group buy thread on this subject on the longecity forum.

I am surprised that people trust this untested and expensive chemical. Who knows if there are any long term side effects. In an interview on Linkedin, Dr. Keizer stated the following:

“We have now also received emails from people from America, for example, who have already bought the drug, the anti-aging substance FOXO4-DRI. You can now get it on the market in China. For a thousand euros you can buy ten milligrams and that is enough for a third of one treatment.”

I am not sure how the product that Dr. Keizer and his team developed (and patented) can be replicated by these Chinese labs. Even some US companies sell FOXO4-DRI for “scientific research use”. I assume all commercial versions of the drug have minor differences.

My Thoughts

I would not take this product in the hopes of re-growing my hair. Too little anecdotal evidence for that as of right now. Not to mention that the price for a full dose treatment is quite prohibitive. However, this whole FOXO4 subject matter is worth following in the coming years.

In an e-mail, Dr. Keizer told me that they were certainly not going to ignore hair growth results during their future research. However, cancer treatment and anti-aging remain their top priorities.

Perhaps localized senescent cell destruction in the scalp region will be possible via topical products in the future? Maybe this could then regrow hair via enabling nearby hair cells to function properly again?

Huge Week for Anti-Aging Research in Mice

I have covered anti-aging research on this blog a few times in the past: partly because aging reversal can often imply hair loss reversal; and partly because I also cover medical items of interest once a month. This week was one of the best ever in anti-aging research, especially for mice (and their fur). A number of people have posted links about some of the below developments in the last post (with special thanks to commentator “Netshed” who was especially prolific), and several people have also e-mailed me relevant links.

Senescent Cell Destruction Results in More Youthful Mice

For many years, scientists have known that the quantity of senescent cells (i.e., aged cells that have stopped dividing) correlates with aging in humans. More recently, research has suggested that senescent cells also damage other nearby healthy cells. So, not surprisingly, some scientists have conducted experiments to see if removing these old senescent cells (ideally, without damaging other normally functioning cells) reversed signs of aging and increased life expectancy. A few experiments in mice have suggested the answer to be in the affirmative (e.g., this one from 2011 and this one from 2015). There is now even a name (senolytics) for the class of drugs that can kill senescent cells.

This week, a groundbreaking study (led by Dr. Peter de Keizer) from the Netherlands found that a drug that they developed to kill senescent cells causes dramatic improvements in mice health and essentially reverses their aging. For our purposes, the most important thing was that these mice saw regrowth of healthy fur/hair! Key photos below (green arrows on rightmost column show hair regrowth in almost all mice after FOXO4 peptide ingestion):

Mice hair regrowth from destroying senescent cells

The team behind this research plans clinical trials in humans in the near future. There are literally 100s of articles on this development, and various scientists from other countries have been quoted as saying that this development is potentially a huge breakthrough in anti-aging science. Two contrasting sources here and here.

Addendum 1: In case anyone got the wrong idea from my recent post on obesity perhaps benefiting scalp hair, this study is worth reading.

Addendum 2: Specially for Mr. “nasa_rs”: “JAK inhibition alleviates the cellular senescence-associated secretory phenotype and frailty in old age“.

David Sinclair Update

I have covered anti-aging Harvard-based Australian researcher Dr. David Sinclair (widely associated with resveratrol) once on this blog before here. In a new paper, him and his colleagues have found a way to protect a mouse’s DNA from damage via boosting NAD+ levels, and they are supposedly ready to test it in people. Dr. Sinclair in some ways is the Dr. George Cotsarelis or Dr. Ken Washenik of the anti-aging world. You decide what I mean by the above sentence.

Note that there is also a Dr. Rodney Sinclair who is a famous hair loss researcher that I have covered a few times on this blog. He is also from Australia.

Young Blood Without the Need for a Donor

In recent years, a number of scientists have been researching the fascinating subject of whether older people can be rejuvenated by the infusion of blood from the young! Billionaire Peter Thiel is especially interested. However, one major problem with this strategy for older non-wealthy people is that there might not be enough young healthy donors with the correct blood type willing to donate at reasonable prices. However, this week, scientists from Germany published research that could be a workaround for this problem. Just make old blood young again (in mice) via the addition of osteopontin protein and forget about the young. After all, “youth is wasted on the young”.