One of the less desirable aspects about writing this blog is learning new acronyms or alphanumeric product names virtually every week. Half way into this month, my street cred has already been enhanced by “SFRP1”, “WAY-316606” and “HSC660”. Today come “AHRS” and “IID”.
American Hair Research Society (AHRS) Summit 2018
Recently, I learnt that the American Hair Research Summit is holding its first conference from May 14-16, 2018 in Orlando, Florida at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort. Having covered numerous US and global hair loss conferences on this blog in the past, I did not recall having ever heard of this particular society. It seems like this is the first ever conference being held by this newly formed association called American Hair Research Society (AHRS). It was previously called North American Hair Research Society (NAHRS).
On their website, they state the following:
“The American Hair Research Society (AHRS) is the former North American Hair Research Society (NAHRS). Because of the great interest and contributions in hair research from colleagues in Central and South America, the “NAHRS” has expanded to “AHRS”.
The AHRS has manged to get an excellent list of speakers and presenters at its first ever summit. Some points of interest:
- Final Program Guide.
- Abstract Book.
- For a majority of us, the most interesting presentations are under the session titled as “Stem Cells, Hair Follicle Neogenesis & Regenerative Medicine”.
- A number of you posted various links in relation to Aclaris Therapeutics’ press release about this conference. I removed all of them because I did not want that discussion to take place in the comments to my prior posts. The key sentence in this latest Aclaris press release is: “Current efforts to expand the range of diseases that could be targeted with JAK inhibitors will be discussed with emphasis on hair disorders, including alopecia areata and androgenetic alopecia.”
- The Aclaris presenter Dr. Paul Changelian is an extremely respected researcher when it comes to JAK inhibitors. Especially tofacitinib.
- Aclaris and Samumed are both Silver level sponsors of this event.
- One of my inside sources e-mailed me today and said that there was some excitement about the results presented by Cassiopea in relation to Breezula. Before anyone gets too excited, remember that Breezula is just a topical anti-androgen and unlikely to cause totally balding regions of the scalp to regain their past glory. Nevertheless, a good maintenance treatment in itself would be very welcome.
- Dr. George Cotsarelis chairs an important session titled “PRP: Hope or Hype?”. A number of other presentations on PRP are also worth tracking.
- Also a number of presentations on the similarly controversial laser and hair growth subject in the session titled “Photobiomodulation, Thermal and Light Therapies”.
- The women continue to take over. The four co-chairs:
IID 2018
Interestingly, the International Investigative Dermatology (IID) 2018 Meeting is also being held at the exact same Rosen Shingle Creek Resort location in Orlando from May 16-19, 2018. I am not too impressed with some parts of the IID 2018 website, but Aclaris is making several interesting presentations at this event. One of the abstracts is titled “Efficacy of topical tofacitinib in promoting hair growth in non-scarring alopecia” and the author is from Thailand. Usually, the JAK inhibitor related studies are authored by US based scientists, so this is a nice change.
Non-scarring alopecia includes androgenetic alopecia, so I looked around and found this paper by the same author. Interesting that so much varied research over the years has found VEGF to be so important for hair growth.
Also of note is the fact that so many of the Aclaris presentations entail tofacitinib. We are still not 100% sure as to which of the various “-tinib” JAK inhibitors and their combinations the company is modifying and using in its much anticipated covalently bound topical JAK inhibitor product for treating androgenetic alopecia.
However, it looks like a certainty that some variation of tofacitinib will be a major component of the final product.
I hope breezula acne sister product comes out next year and can be used for aga…wishful thinking maybe but technically it focuses on supressing androgens. Curious to see their results and jaks and other treatments mentioned during that event. I see that samumed was a silver sponsor. There were silver sponsored two years ago as well. Hopefully they have some good results to share.
Great post admin, thanks for summing all that up.
Do you know if Cassiopeia presented any photos of regrowth or convincing maintenance?
I am hoping that Aclaris leaks out during the World Hair Conference that their product looks like its working. Its just a hope for now.
After all this time our topic has turned back to Hair Pieces. Its been a waste of a lifetime if things stay the same.
Really sad that cotsarelis will be there to present PRP. I got a friend he tried PRP and I can repply for cotsarelis its just a hype ( not hope).
Dr cotsarelis used to give us more hope..
From my experience, PRP does wonders for sports injuries that would otherwise heal much slower, but for hair loss I found it completely useless. One guy who got PRP for a head injury regrew one follicle and the whole hair loss world went mad. Several years later; nothing.
@Admin……I like your efforts and staying up on things. However, I think and maybe I could be wrong, but has anyone addressed the black label warning on the Tofac Jak?….Side effects can be Tuberculosis……which is a huge hurdle. Also, the primary reasons for a prescription is rheumatoid arthritis….unless topical form is some how safer than tablet. I am literally just re-stating what is in the 2018 drug handbook( so it’s current ) in medical school. I looked the drug up….and seen the black label warning( not good lol ). Then I read the sides and use of indication. This to me would be the hurdle. I am sure someone on the forum or admin can come up with a proposed way around this as Jaks, in particular this one is being explored. However, if I were investing….this would be the hurdle to look at, beyond effectiveness for hairloss on MPB. As of now, it would be a lawsuit liability to prescribe as a MPB treatment because of the black box warning, and the harsh side effects…..worse than loss of intimacy drive etc that ppl on fin are worried about( myself included btw )…..Although I would take 10-20% of libido off for full head of hair, some wouldn’t..I would. I am concerned about the claims of brain fog and sleep…..as well I need to rely on those do to studies at school. Not meant to be a negative post, just there has to be a Ph.D or M.D, who has found a safer way or to get around hurdles I mentioned. I think that with effectiveness is key, not just effectiveness. Again, if I had money on this……This would be the hurdle- for you stock guys.
After writing this, note to self: Need to find things to do at 5 A.M besides look up Jaks in my medical books over MPB …lol. Although, I think most can relate.
Tuberculosis is not a hurdle. There is a vaccine for Tuberculosis, which you probably already had as a baby.
Actual MD here who prescribes Tofacitnib relatively frequently.
First off, there is no vaccine for TB that works very well. The best way to avoid TB réactivation is to get tested for latent TB before getting the drug. If positive we treat for latent Tb first and then start Tofa.
Also, Tofa is a strong immunosuppressant and I would definitely not take it to prevent androgenic hairloss.
The topical form sounds interesting, and if it has good efficacy, it may have some promise (given that the side effects are likely to be significantly milder).
@Derek robert: Get out of here man. LOL.
this may have been posted in the past but this was a good read even if a lot of people may disregard it:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4174066/
Breezula should be posting some results if I’m not mistaken as they said they would H1 2018 and stated that 75% of the 12 month efficacy is exhibited by 6 months
http://www.cassiopea.com/news-and-media/press-releases/yr-2017/171211.aspx
EDIT: The 75% efficacy was in regards of Finasteride not necessarily this product, however, they state:
“We will thus perform an interim analysis after 6 months to make an assessment of the best dosing regimen and expect to be able to provide top line results in late H1 2018”.
Found a great report from 3rd May on Samummed pipeline of products, and its very exciting, they expect the first FDA approved product release in 2020, quite possibly sooner!
HOWEVER…no mention of the AGA product?? Couple this with their AGA being stuck on Phase 2 since 2016…or am I doing 2+2 = 22
https://www.samumed.com/medium/image/scrip-pharma-intelligence-samumed-cmo-hopes-to-reach-drug-approvals-via-the-wnt-pathway_316/view.aspx
They are very quiet when it comes to AGA, Almost figured they gave up, but at the Vatican conference. they announced phase three. Go to the 11 minute mark of the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlVTa7YpcZs
On another note: Andy Roddick (USA tennis ex-player) somehow has hair now. He was balding as hell 2 years ago. Now he is in new commercials for lunch meat or something (I can’t tell cause his new hair is too distracting and intriguing) with a full spiked hair doo. I’m thinking fue, but then again these celebs have access to more answers than us “commoners” Other celebs under question: Jimmy Kimmel, Matthew McConaughey (balding as hell 4 years ago) etc.. give me more examples.. They are “in the know” of something.
Great info…Roddick was definitely balding fast.