Category Archives: Alopecia Areata

Alopecia Areata, Angela Christiano, Brett King, Craig Venter, JAK Inhibitors, Martine Rothblatt

Angela Christiano, Brett King and JAK Inhibitors

187 Comments

Dr. Angela Christiano, Dr. Brett King and JAK Inhibitors

The biggest news this month is Spencer Kobren’s latest interview with Dr. Angela Christiano. Half way through the video he specifically asks her about the potential of JAK inhibitors in treating androgenic alopecia. In my opinion, Dr. Christiano seems somewhat optimistic, although she wavers around the question a bit. JAK inhibitors seem to affect follicles via shifting them to growth phase from resting phase as well as via a positive impact on the underlying dermal papilla cells.

Hopefully this means there will be at least some benefit to all patients irrespective of the type of hair loss that they are suffering from. I still see it as a coin toss (i.e., a 50 percent probability of it helping people with male pattern hair loss too). On a related note, Dr. Christiano was also granted a patent on the use of JAK inhibitors to treat “a hair loss disorder” on December 1, 2015. The patent was filed on May 2, 2013.

Also extremely significant, Dr. Brett King has now successfully tested a topical cream formulation of JAK inhibitor ruxolitinib on a female patient suffering from alopecia areata. Her eyebrow hair grew back fully, while her scalp hair grew back partially. The cream has to be applied twice daily, which makes sense since Dr. Christiano in the earlier mentioned interview said that the half life of JAK inhibitors is very short.

A cream will in all likelihood almost entirely eliminate the chances of serious side effects. Even win oral JAK inhibitors, side effects seem rare so far. I recently even saw TV ads for arthritis JAK inhibitors, so hundreds of thousands of people are already taking these drugs orally.

Other Hair Loss News

— “Hellouser” has updated many more videos to his youtube channel regarding his interviews and presentation recordings from the recent 9th World Congress for Hair Research.

— Upon first hearing about PSG’s David Luiz claim that he has found a cure for hair loss, I was certain this was junk science or a scam. However, at the end of the article I read that the treatment in Brazil involves moving cells from the hip to the scalp. Considering that I have given so much attention to PRP and fat/adipose cells, I decided to keep this news here. I have no idea why the cells are taken from the hip and not elsewhere. Mr. Luiz does have superb hair, and I can see why (despite all his wealth and fame) he cares so much about keeping it that way.

And now on to medical items of interest:

— An interesting interview of Martine Rothblatt by Ray Kurzweil. Martine is a MTF transsexual, and I have mentioned several times on this blog about my theory that transsexuals have very high intelligence levels. Also see this must-read 9 page article on Martine.

— A new interview of Elizabeth Parrish by Dr. Ed Park. You can perform a search on this blog for Ms. Parrish to see her past videos.

— Google planning a needle-free way to collect blood. Are they one-upping Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos? See the end of my post on getting cheap blood tests.

— Dr. Craig Venter recently made a very interesting presentation on precision medicine and extending human longevity. We are lucky to live in an age where we can watch these superb videos for free online.

Alopecia Areata, Angela Christiano, JAK Inhibitors

Alopecia Areata and Dr. Angela Christiano

4 Comments

Despite the main focus of this blog being on androgenetic alopecia (AGA), I have made a number of posts about alopecia areata (AA) during the past year. Note that alopecia areata can be in the form of alopecia totalis or alopecia universalis.

Over 95 percent of hair loss patients suffer from AGA, also known as male pattern baldness and female pattern hair loss.

Alopecia Areata Treatment Breakthroughs

Over the past year, a lot of good news has come out regarding alopecia areata treatments involving JAK inhibitors. This is due to the great work of people such as Dr. Angela Christiano and Dr. Brett King.

Alopecia Areata Hair Loss Photo
Alopecia Areata hair loss patient from Dr. Christiano’s presentation.

In my opinion, there is also a chance that these JAK inhibitor drugs may benefit people with certain types of androgenetic alopecia. In particular, when there is an inflammatory (dandruff, itching, scaling) component involved too. However, this is pure conjecture on my part and entirely unproven.

Dr. Angela Christiano Video

Dr. Angela Christiano recently published a good video on alopecia areata, and it includes her personal experiences with the disease. There is more of a female focus in Dr. Christiano and her Columbia University team’s latest research, which is a rarity in the hair loss world.

This video is embedded below.  A few of the more interesting sections include:

  • 11:00 = I was quite surprised to read that alopecia areata affects 5.3 million people in the US, with a 1.7 percent lifetime risk.
  • 11:42 = comparison with genes involved in psoriosis and vitiligo.
  • 12:15 and 12:45 = most important part of the presentation related to research on Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors. These include Ruxolitinib (JAK 1,2); Tofacitinib (JAK 1,2,3); Baricitinib (JAK 1,2); VX-509 (JAK 1,2); and R348 (JAK 1,2). The last three mentioned are not yet approved, while the first two are FDA approved for certain applications. You can read more about those drugs via the “Categories” section in the left hand column of this blog.
  • 12:57 = Results on mice.
  • 23:47 = Great results on a woman and later on a man.