Category Archives: Wnt/Beta-Catenin

Dutasteride, EdnrB, Kerastem, Wnt/Beta-Catenin, Wnt10b, Zagallo

Dutasteride (Zagallo) in Japan and Kerastem Update

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There have been a huge amount of hair loss related news items of interest in the past month.  Several of them probably deserved their own blog posts.

GSK Launching Dutasteride (Zagallo) in Japan

I did not realize that GSK was launching Dutasteride in Japan via the brand name Zagallo (to treat male pattern hair loss) and that this plan was delayed in late 2015. I did, however, cover the favorable Japanese GSK clinical trial results last year that are mentioned in that first link. Now comes word that Catalent’s French plant has been cleared to restart production. Note that Dutasteride was approved to treat hair loss in Japan on September 28th 2015.

It was approved for the same purpose in South Korea all the way back in 2010. In the US, it was approved to treat enlarged prostates in 2002. It is unlikely that GSK will try to get Dutasteride approved to treat hair loss in the US or EU. Make sure to read my Dutasteride (Avodart) hair growth experiences post and related comments. Note that if you are worried about Finasteride (Propecia) side effects, the more powerful Dutasteride (Avodart) will likely cause even more problem.

Kerastem Review

Since quite a few recent reader comments have mentioned Kerastem, I have to discuss Christopher1’s thread on hairsite regarding his Kerastem treatment in Switzerland. He had the treatment in early February of this year for $8,000. Unlike his well covered failed experiment with topical JAK inhibitor tofactinib, this time he went to a professional clinic to get the Kerastem treatment. Per his latest post from three days ago, he has good news to share and I quote:

“After having brought you some bad news about my Jak inhibitor trial, I finally have some good news for you. It’s not great, but it’s very good. My hair has stopped falling out. It stopped about three weeks ago, which was a bit over 2 months after my Kerastem treatment.”

Note that this is only one data point and there has been no regrowth. Moreover, and we do not know how long this cessation in hair loss will last. The rest of his post indicates that this is the first time in 15 years that his hair has stopped falling out. Kind of similar to my experience with low-dose oral Minoxidil. I find “Chrisopher1” to be a reliable and sincere person.

Other Hair Loss News

— Scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York recently found the molecular pathways responsible for creating the color of skin and hair. They found that a signaling pathway known as Edn/EdnrB interacts with other pathways (in particular, with the Wnt signaling pathway). This in turn causes the proliferation of melanocyte stem cells (McSCs) that are involved in the earliest stages of skin and hair pigmentation. This suggests that targeting Edn/EdnrB signaling in McSCs can be a therapeutic approach to promote hair pigmentation retention.

— A new paper from China titled “Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway activates melanocyte stem cells in vitro and in vivo.”  Research was done in mice.

— An update on research at Japan’s Yokohama University under the leadership of Dr. Junji Fukuda. Translation required, and it is in mice only for now. Short interview with Dr. Fukuda in there that is partially lost in translation. Thanks yet again to our wonderful Japanese blog reader and commentator “nosyu” who updates me regularly about developments in Japan that are not covered by the English media. The Fukuda Lab lists hair regrowth as one of its key areas of research.

— Topical methyl vanillate (a plant derived natural ingredient) increases hair count and hair mass index by inducing Wnt10b mRNA expression in the scalp. According to the study, methyl vanillate has recently been shown to activate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, which has become a key target in the treatment of androgenic alopecia by numerous researchers in recent years.

— I was not planning to cover this public relations type piece on Dr. James Harris, but I liked the ending: “And when Harris predicts the future of his profession, he sees stem cells and growth factors – not plucking and planting.”

— I am always impressed by hair loss sufferers who go through impressive regimens and post regular updates. The latest example is “westonci” on HLT who is supposedly going through the whole of SwissTemple’s prostaglandin protocol that I have mentioned on this blog several times before.

— Talking about PGD2, an interesting new study from South Korea just came out today. It provides further evidence that prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) and its nonenzymatic metabolite, 15-deoxy prostaglandin J2 (15-dPGJ2), inhibit hair growth.

— An interesting new hair product from a company named “Reason to Believe” will soon be produced in North Carolina, based on the Alpha Keratin 60ku patent. Hard to tell how good this product will be and how long it will last (I doubt it is permanent).

— Can protein shakes lead to hair loss?

— “Baldy Viking” has some videos on dermarolling and onion juice!  I just saw only part of one of those…seems interesting and not entirely crazy. I have become more of a believer in natural treatments for hair loss having at least some minor benefit.

— An interesting story of an Irish woman’s battle with alopecia cicatricial related hair loss since age 21.

— Yet one more distraction for Dr. George Cotsarelis.

— In celebrity news, Rosie O’Donnell discusses her hair loss; it seems like golfer Jordan Speith may have had a hair transplant; and Charles Barkley has asked basketball superstar Lebron James to stop painting on his hair. Search this blog for my past mentions of Lebron James if you are interested in this kind of news.

And now on to medical items of interest:

— CRISPR breakthrough is most clever yet, and increasingly relevant to humans.

— Scientist turn skin cells into heart cells and brain cells just using drugs.

— Regenerating brains of the dead.

— Japan OK’s gene editing of eggs. As long-time blog readers know, the Japanese have already fast tracked clinical trials for newer regenerative medicine and stem cell treatments. Everything is moving along fast over there, and I am glad that we have both Shiseido and Dr. Takashi Tsuji based in Japan.

— As expected, the first ever penis transplant in the US got widespread global news coverage yesterday. I first heard about it via the radio in my car yesterday, then via a text message from a friend (wonder why?), and then again today via my Yahoo homepage. Bill Gates must be horrified at global priorities.

— Five-year update on face transplant recipient.

— MIT scientists and others create an artificial second skin.

— Maybe vitamin supplements are useful after all?

— Biohacking in Brooklyn.

Samumed, SM04554, Wnt/Beta-Catenin, Yusuf Yazici

Samumed’s SM04554 is no Miracle Cure

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Update: Samumed released their presentation files.  Actual presentation at the conference was by the CEO Yusuf Yazici.

— Press Release.

— Details.

Per page 12 of the above second link, while the treatment lasted for 90 days, the final hair counts were measured at day 135.  So in spite of no treatment for 45 days, hair counts still increased from day 90 to day 135.

Important finding:

“No serious adverse events (SAE) observed in the treatment groups, and the incidence of adverse events (AE) was similar between treatment and control groups.”

Also now covered in the Daily Mail and Business Insider.

I have covered Samumed and its SM04554 product numerous times on this blog in the past several years.  My first post on Samumed was written in 2014 and is worth a reread.  Last month, I wrote about the upcoming 74th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) between March 4 and March 8 — with Samumed taking center stage.  In that post, I stated that: “I am not expecting anything particularly impressive in this latest presentation, but would be more than happy to be wrong.”

Unfortunately, I was not wrong (and I am very surprised that so many people expected this to be a miracle and are so depressed on the hair loss forums!).  Although Samumed has yet to release its presentation slides or pdfs from yesterday’s presentation for public viewing on their website’s media page or publications page,  a Forbes magazine article summarized their Phase II clinical trial findings.  The results, while good (a 10 percent increase in hair count after only 3 months of topical application), were nowhere near what one would deem as groundbreaking.  Note that all 302 patients that were treated were high Norwoods (4 to 6) on the Norwood-Hamilton balding classification scale.

Moreover, one strange development was that the lower (0.15 percent) dosage yielded better hair count growth than the higher (0.25 percent) dosage (9.6 percent growth versus 6.9 percent growth).  However, this does make the study more believable in my opinion.  It is also worth noting that SMO4555 is tackling baldness via targeting the Wnt pathway, which is something that is entirely different from what all other hair loss drugs and lotions to date have targeted.  It seems like the typical phenomenon of higher doses being more effective for hair growth may not apply when dealing with the Wnt pathway.  Or this could just be a one time anomaly.

One of the reasons that I was not expecting any miracle is because of Samumed’s 2013 Australian clinical trials not getting much coverage.  It seems like those results were never published?

For the time being, we can only hope that 6 month results will be superior to 3 month results.  If not, we at the very least have yet another weapon in the fight against hair loss.  After having just one topical product (Minoxidil) to tackle our hair loss problems for the past few decades, we could soon have four or five separately acting topicals as I mentioned in this post.  In the words of a great sage named “Farhan”:

“I will put all the topicals in blender..may be add a bit of lavender for flavour…mix it and I will apply it on my head…”

Finally, we should also remember that the science behind SM04554 is sound and their team is led by two scientists who have been involved in hair loss research for years.  The Forbes magazine article I mentioned earlier states that Samumed is a  “largely unknown biotechnology company.”  However, this unknown and fairly new company seems to have the resources to hire esteemed hair loss research scientists, including others besides the above two that are conducting the trials at centers around the US.