Category Archives: Prostaglandin D2

CRTH2 (DP2), George Cotsarelis, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, Luis Garza, OC000459, PGD2, PGD2-GPR44 Pathway, Prostaglandin D2, Setipiprant

PGD2 Inhibitors: The Next Big Trend at Hair Clinics?

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Update: January 2020 — South Korea’s Stemore is working on a PGD2 inhibitor hair loss product called SM-003.

Numerous groundbreaking developments have occurred in hair loss cure research during the past few years. Among the most exciting is Kythera Biopharmaceuticals’ Setipiprant prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) antagonist (inhibiting) product.

For a better understanding of the link between male pattern baldness (MPB) and PGD2, this 2014 paper from the famous Dr. Luis Garza and Dr. Ashley Nieves is excellent reading. Also worth reading is this 2012 paper from Dr. Luis Garza, Dr. George Cotsarelis and others.

In the simplest of terms, prostaglandin D2 levels are elevated in balding scalps, and inhibiting PGD2 could prevent baldness from progressing. In order to do this, you target the PGD2-GPR44 pathway (since PGD2 binds to the GPR44 receptor).

What excited me even more so than the research behind this subject matter is the following 2015 audio interview with Kythera founder and at-the-time CEO Keith Leonard. When I first heard it, I felt like he really knew what he was talking about and was sincere. Mr. Leonard seemed very excited about the “elegant” science (from Dr. Cotsarelis and his team at the University of Pennsylvania) behind this product.

Unfortunately, it seems like Mr. Leonard is no longer with Kythera. Moreover, when I checked Kythera’s website today, the pages with a listing of board of directors and management were missing. I would not read too much into Mr. Leonard’s departure, as the release of Setipiprant is still at least several years away in a best case scenario. To learn more about Kythera and Setipiprant, read my post from 2015 in its entirety.

Clinic Made PGD2 Inhibition Products to Treat Hair Loss

What made me think about this subject matter this week after several months of forgetting about it was an interesting new article published three days ago coming from India. Apparently a local clinic named “Hairline International Hair and Skin Clinic” is now offering PGD2 inhibitor therapy for hair loss. The article is full of typos, bad science and ads. My immediate reaction is that this Indian clinic’s product is likely to be totally ineffective and a sham.

Nevertheless, this development is not surprising at all considering that so many hair loss forum members have been experimenting with similar homemade products for several years now. So perhaps such a product is not too difficult to manufacture/compound? Even something like topical cetirizine is thought to help androgenetic alopecia via reducing PGD2.

Are we about to see more hair loss clinics offer proprietary products that inhibit PGD2 or is this just a one-time thing that will spread to very few other places? A decade ago, very few hair loss clinics offered lasers or platelet-rich plasma therapy to treat hair loss, but now both are commonplace worldwide. Can PGD2 inhibition therapy follow a similar path?  With PGD2 therapy, I do wonder how much the patent held by Kythera negatively impacts the chances of other competing proprietary products from hair loss clinics becoming popular and legal, especially in the US?

Homemade (“ghetto”) PGD2 Inhibitors to Treat Hair Loss

There is a good chance that Setipiprant will significantly aid patients with androgenetic alopecia. The only problem is that clinical trials for Setipiprant will not be completed for several years. So not surprisingly, many people on hair loss forums are creating their own versions of Setipiprant/PGD2 inhibitors and testing them, or purchasing them from oftentimes sketchy vendors. The vast majority seem to have tested these “ghetto” products with no groundbreaking results to report. However, as is always the case with such experiments, a majority of people are probably not even remotely correct in getting correct ingredients, dosages, vehicles and more. In any case, I will leave you with some links to the said hair loss forum threads further below.

Also note that I plagiarized the “ghetto” term from “Swisstemples” who I have mentioned on this blog several times before. He has what seems to be an excellent page on his site regarding “The Postaglandin Protocol.”  He also has a page on things to buy and use (where he uses the term “ghetto protocol” that includes some products to combat PGD2. I do not take any responsibility if you do what he suggests and get nasty side effects. I would never try any of this myself unless I had a really good chemist friend.

Note that people use various essentially synonymous terms for the products that they are trying in some of the below links, including “PGD2 receptor antagonist”, “PGD2 blocker”, “PGD2-GPR-44 receptor antagonist” and “CRTH2 receptor antagonist”.

— An excellent poster from the 9th Congress for Hair Research last year  (thanks “Hellouser”) can be found here –> “CRTH2/DP2 Antagonists Reverse Hair Growth Inhibition Caused by PGD2.” Main authors are Cotsarelis, Hsieh, Nace and Zheng.

— 51 page and growing HLT thread titled “dedicated Setipiprant log.”  Seem to be overall negative results, but I have only read 3-4 of those pages.

— BTT thread on homemade  PGD2 inhibitors.

— HLT thread on whether anyone is still on PGD2 blockers?

— HLH thread on OC000459, a CRTH2 antagonist. Also see Oxagen.

— Ramatroban (a PGD2 receptor antagonist) that many people seem to have purchased. I have no idea about safety and legality issues.

— Note that Kane from China was offering his version of Setipiprant in the past, but I do not know the current status.

— Seems of interest regarding CRTH2.

— PGD2 Regimen — Cetirizine + Water.

— An interesting recent HLT thread on CRISPR type gene therapy to fix the three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Specifically, rs545659, rs634681 and rs7167 have been found to be responsible for this PGD2 sensitivity.

— Resvertarol and PGD2?  Not sure about this one.

— Quercetin and PGD2  video. Not sure about this one either, but many other hair loss forum posts on this subject.

Allergan, John Cole, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, PGD2, PGE2, Platelet-Rich Plasma, Prostaglandin D2, Prostaglandin E2, PRP

Brief Items of Interest, June 2015

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Hair loss news first:

— The biggest news so far this month is Allergan’s purchase of Kythera Biopharmaceuticals yesterday. While Allergan is largely known for its blockbuster Botox product, for us hair loss sufferers, the company’s Bimatoprost product is is all we care about. While Kythera’s most well known product is its recently approved ATX-101 (brand name Kybella) china fat reducing topical product, for us hair loss sufferers, the company’s Setipiprant product is all we care about.

Bimatoprost is essentially (but not exactly) a prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) analog and  Setipiprant is a prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) antagonist. The latter holds far greater potential to be a cure for hair loss compared to the former. A combination treatment with the two drugs (i.e, increase PGE2 and decrease PGD2) has in the past been postulated to be the perfect treatment to regrow hair. I would urge all blog readers to listen to this encouraging audio segment on Setipiprant from an investor call earlier this year.

— An interesting article on a doctor in Texas using PRP with stem cells derived from a donor’s placenta to treat hair loss.

— The renowned Dr. John Cole is planning to do a major study on the effectiveness of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy. The PRP treatment will entail three sessions (once a month for three months) costing a total of $750, an absolute steal. Moreover, it seems like Dr. Cole will refund that $750 too if you show up for a follow-up 6-12 months after the first injection session. Dr. Cole will test many different treatment protocols, including using a variety of extracellular matrix (ECM) products and activation methods.

PRP is still fairly new when it comes to the hair loss world, with many significant differences in methodology and ingredients existing between different doctors and hair transplant surgeons. Such a study needed to be done a few years ago. If you do volunteer for this study, please make sure you know exactly what Dr. Cole will inject into your scalp. He is very well respected and unlikely to do anything even remotely risky, but when you are injecting something into your scalp (or for that matter, anywhere into your body), it is best to be very cautious.

And now on to medical items of interest:

— A new study finds that keeping PGE2 levels high in mice by reducing 15-PGDH promotes tissue regeneration. It seems like PGE2 has many benefits besides hair growth.

— A groundbreaking new $25 blood test called VirScan that can tell you every virus you have had. An average person has been exposed to 10 of the 206 known viruses that infect humans.

— A great article on the history of artificial hearts and continuing progress.

— An update on the patient who might get a full body transplant (always inaccurately referred to as a head transplant by the media).

— Since I already covered the above story several times this year, the one on a Chinese surgeon who has performed 1,000 head transplants in mice and plans to move on to monkeys next is more interesting, albeit revolting and slightly discouraging (the mice usually only survived for minutes, with the record being 10 days). The excellent WSJ article with a video on this requires a subscription, but if you google the article’s title, you will then be able to access it without a subscription. I did not realize the now obvious conclusion that a full body transplant would be revolutionary when it comes to most types of cancer treatment. However, even I do not foresee a successful long-lasting full body transplant in a human for many decades to come. Nevertheless, what an insane era we are living through.