During the past few months, there have been a few new companies entering the hair regeneration sector, but none have impressed me and I have limited my coverage of all those companies to small sections within my once a month “brief items of interest” posts. Today, I learnt about yet another new entrant into the field named HairClone that I felt finally warranted its own post (albeit barely). I still have some serious doubts about this company (would be shocked if they come out with anything substantial in the next 5 years) and do not consider them anywhere near as important to us as the established entities such as the RIKEN/Kyocera/Tsuji partnership (Japan) or the Shiseido/Replicel partnership (Japan). I will briefly analyze this new company via positives and negatives:
Positives
- The renowned and widely respected researcher Dr. Claire Higgins joined HairClone’s advisory board on August 30th (but alse read my comment on her in the “Negatives” section below).
Very excited to welcome Claire Higgins onto our SAB! Claire’s work on dermal papilla cells will be of great help pic.twitter.com/B7ZKhbbHkv
— HairClone (@HairClone) August 30, 2016
- HairClone will be hiring more scientific advisers besides Dr. Claire Higgins in the near future. Would be great if they tried to get Dr. Roland Lauster into the team.
- A recent Tweet suggests monthly update meetings with PhD students:
Great first monthly update meeting with Manchester University Doctoral Training Centre in Regen Med. students. Very good questions.
— HairClone (@HairClone) August 17, 2016
- HairClone has devised a very unique and creative way to get funding (not necessarily a positive in many people’s minds) and that includes: crowdfunding; giving people who fund the company’s research preference when the actual treatment comes out; allowing investment in equity; offering leading hair transplant clinics around the world membership opportunities; and most interesting of all, hair follicle banking and storage. On a somewhat related note, if you are having a baby, consider cord blood storage if you have the financial wherewithal.
Negatives
- By far the biggest negative is that this is still way too early in the game and who knows when trials will commence, and whether the company will succeed with its dermal papilla focused cloning technology in the first place. Or even if they manage to get sufficient funding.
- Related to the above, when Solomon interviewed Dr. Claire Higgins earlier this year, she generally sounded pessimistic about new treatments and said the following about cloning (Update: Solomon corrected me in the comments and said she was only talking about cell injections here….but I think in general she sounded pessimistic about the hair cloning time frame in the whole interview):
“I think the future (but it’s not in 4 years or 5 years away, it’s like in 20 years) is to promote direct conversion of fibroblasts into papillae. But something like this will take decades. We don’t know how to do that yet.”
I am hoping that Dr Higgins will change her prediction to 10 years if her lab (only two years old at the time of the interview) and research work gets significantly more resources as a result of HairClone. Thankfully she said that she was not exactly sure about Dr. Tsuji’s work and neither did she list Shiseido’s trials in Japan in her list of ongoing trial examples, so maybe she is just entirely focused on her own work and not following others too much. 20 years would be too big a gamble to invest in a company such as HairClone, and I hope Dr. Bessam Farjo has other ideas and is hoping for much faster completion of clinical trials. And of course he is probably not just relying on Dr. Higgins’ dermal papilla related work.
- The company website has some typos, flow issues and seems somewhat haphazardly put together at the moment. e.g., this page that should probably be removed and this page’s URL includes “hello-world” like in an intro to computer science programming assignment etc…
Saw you had tweeted them earlier. It seems to me like it’s a get rich quick thing…it’s the new snake oil. Convince desperate guys to stick money into crowd funding with the promise of quickest access to this cutting edge new treatment, though the people involved have had nothing much to do with the development of said technology. I call bullshit. They’ve read the hype surrounding Tsuji and envisaged how that might look in practice, wrote up some nice copy on it and now want your cash.
Looks pretty amateurish
Hey
“I think the future (but it’s not in 4 years or 5 years away, it’s like in 20 years) is to promote direct conversion of fibroblasts into papillae. But something like this will take decades. We don’t know how to do that yet.”
She said that about topical cream that is able to grow full head of hair on slick bald scalps.
Like topical Tsuji. Apply some topical and cells will promote new hair (like in fetus).
Thanks Solomon! Added a note about your point (see update note towards the bottom of the post).
Very good news. In addition to Dr. Claire Higgis and others are working with them is excellent news . Admin: Do not worry about this sentence: I think the future (but it ‘s not in 4 years or 5 years away , it’s like in 20 years) is to Promote direct conversion of fibroblasts into papillae . But something like this will take decades. We do not know yet how to do That . “Be patient . People are working very hard .
Excellent blog. And thanks to Follicle Thought. Before leaving these treatments “cure ” You will have other treatments before 2019 . Together we’re stronger.
Don’t you get it? There is a cure, just like cancer. They do not want the average man having access to such an anecdote. Think of the money generated through things like cancer and hairloss. There is an organization above anything else that controls what we have access to. Funny how you can get stem cell treatment for torn tendons in Switzerland but the ignorance in the Americas holds our ability to widen our minds. If we can create a hybrid out of two animals and create designer babies we sure as h*ll know how to stop hair from falling.
Signed… The wolf in the herd.
Bahh
@Benjamin Leschyshyn: Don’t make the classic mistake. Don’t compare pathologies please.
Sorry, do u know how I may delete my comment?
Paul Phoenix is absolutely right!! Together we are stronger!!! We are in 2016 damn it!! We need to form one cohesive non profit orginization and become so powerful that legit treatmemts are shelved within the next two years!!!! Let’s go people!!!! We have to be quasi bullies but hey it’s our hair on the line!!!!
Hey admin just noticed that on the samumed website they took down their SM phase 1 and phase 2 trials. This doesn’t look good :( I guess they believe 10% regrowth is not good enough or they just used hair loss treatment as advertising hype to boost awareness of their company.
https://www.samumed.com/publications/default.aspx
As for haircell, it looks like another company that will just go though a couple trials then stumble. I put more faith in tsuji.
Did the tsuji interview come our yet?
The CEO and one scientist from Tsuji’s team will answer questions over phone mid next week, with translation into English to follow a few days later
as long as people are doing research…they will likely look for a bigger company to buy out their research or add into some others cell companies line up of something “missing” from their own research. The more the better.
JAK inhibitors are our best solution to hair loss treatment to have all of our own hair back.
Not much longer for us. If you have no hope hang on its almost here.
Glad you are back NASA:-)
Replicel 2 more years (:
JAK!!!
I also get a good feeling when nasa comes around again
Nasa_rs why do you think there’s been no community trial of JAK-i? It’s already prescribed off-label, it can’t be that hard for someone to get their hands on it. Dozens of people are trying homebrew-Brotzu as we speak, what’s the holdup on JAKi?
Cheers
Hey if you are really FT, welcome!
I think the best statement for this is that they seem to be counting their chickens before they hatch.
Ps… NASA is back! Lol.
I am just waiting for more info on JAK inhibitor treatment. Not much longer to wait. For those with no hope hang on 2016 has been a good year but 2017 is the year we have a researched treatment and we just wait sometime after that to buy the cream, solution.
Three years ago they said if you lost your hair you would NEVER get it back. But now we know the hair follicle is Complete just miniaturized. And now we are the cusp of getting it ALL back.
It is all going to happen fast. Few had cell phones 10 years ago now they are life for most people. Change happens fast.
Few had cell phones 10 years ago? Idk abut you but my Nokia was off the hook with my rhinestone face plate in 2006… Kidding of course. That was back in 2000.
Aclaris Therapeutics to present next Wed. at the Morgan Stanley 2016 Healthcare Conference (link to live webcast at http://www.aclaristx.com/press-releases)
I remember Walker said something like, “Oral JAK inhibitors don’t work for AGA, but topical does.”
Someone needs to ask him how the **** he knows that without using it in humans with AGA. It can’t be an isolated tissue sample (otherwise they couldn’t specify oral vs. topical). The only thing that really fits is that they grafted bald AGA skin to some SCID mice, tested oral vs. topical on them, and noticed results only with topical JAK inhibitors. But until I see _one_ case report in humans, my expectations are low.
Admin have u seen danny roddi video on cO2 being the cure…interesting vid on utube https://youtu.be/6PBKLRtp30E pls respond
Thanks had not seen that video, but have skimmed through a lot of his stuff and a number of people have asked me about him over the years. Maybe I should look into it in more detail.
Been following Roddy for a year, I think that’s why I had such good results from minox as posted on HRN. Kind of resetting energy metabolism with minox triggering refrowth. Would love to see a Q&A with him here or something, genuinely think his research could help a lot of guys on here.
I’m on Rogaine and losing ground. What did you do to get regrowth ?
Don’t have time to watch but what is the bottom line? What ideas or solutions does he offer?
I agree with Nasa. JAK inhibitors or brotzu look to me like the only things in the near future that MAY be able to help us. All these companies popping up with these hair cloning ideas just seems like a cash grab to me. They realize how big of a demand there is for a treatment or cure, and are jumping on the bandwagon to make a few bucks off us desperate baldies. I mean come on – crowdfunding now? They know there isn’t going to be any investors without some sort of proof this works, so they turn to us who they know will sink cash into any potential treatment just at the mere hope they may be onto something.
Histogen is their role model lol…
What is your agenda against Histogen? It’s pretty pathetic, if there was one persons posts we shouldn’t have to read it’s 99.9% yours.
I would honestly consider Histogen, £1k for 3 injections and the potential to have consistent effect for 2 years? That’s actually not far off the cost of doing Minox and Finasteride for 2 years straight.
I can see some companies look like they’re on snake oil treatments, but Histogen doesn’t seem to be one of them. The growth factors work…
He’s on some macho shit. One of those guys that likes to hear himself speak.
Thanks Breezy. We are all agree with you. Histogen will be a good treatment for MPB in 2017-2018.
I was kinda interested in histogen until they said hairs that regrow r not permanent. Sorry not worth spendin thousands every few years. We need a real permanent solution
@MD Hence the words treatment. Who is promising and delivering permanent new follicles so far? Nobody man, nobody.
I agree @Breezy like 1k or 2 whatever, 1-2 years of growth and than top up every 1-2 years is better than splattering crap on your head daily to maintain vellum hairs…or volunteer castration…
Has Histogen posted any actual photos yet of a man with a very promising transformation?.. where it’s at an angle where you can tell it’s the same guy?
@slick
Most of us don’t need “promising transformation.” We need a treatment that can halt hairloss and bring back some of our hair.
A one time set of injections that creates some growth and a complete halt of hairloss for 2-5 years is a game changer. Either you see it that way or you don’t. With that said… All of us on this forum would get the treatment if it were to come out today.
The treatment itself, working at its full potential, would give you 10 more years in which “promising transformation” would more likely be possible.
@ Curious .. thank you for telling me what I need.. I am bald already with FUT scars.. this website is about a cure, not a halt. If you want a halt, I know of some great products that have been available for decades.
Neal Walker of Aclaris Therapeutics will present at the Morgan Stanley 2016 Healthcare Conference on Wednesday, September 16th.
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=254196&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=2199605
Hopefully we hear some positive news about JAK inhibitors.
It’s not a presentation on JAK inhibitors it’s about another one of their projects. However, HLT is gonna have a conference call with the entire team next week! Which is even better
@Red… I hope so… I’ve lowered my chances of jaks as a cure to 50/50 just based upon Dr. Christiano leaving to pursue a different method of cure. Also, I don’t have much faith that my long inactive follicles would spring to life again. Finally, if Aclaris had a cure for baldness on their hands and the potential to make vast sums of money, I just think we’d see a bit more aggressive movement around it.
Anyway, I hope my suspicions are proven wrong, and they somehow make the jak topicals affordable asap. They need to get this moving! !
” or they just used hair loss treatment as advertising hype to boost awareness of their company.” mjones
Finally you know the true….
The same is for histogen.
Yeah guys histogen will be good if it really exists.. I don’t even understand how you guys can be so blind.. She is just stalling… Any ways lol I don’t even want to argue.. If it comes and truly works I will be more than happy… All my hopes are on Brotzu for now…
this guy… First to complain but will be first in line.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-kemp-61573014
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1023676/Scientists-develop-baldness-cure-cloning-hair-growth-cells.html
Maybe you should take a look at this admin.
@friendlyneighborhood wow! Some big claims in 2008 :-) always be skeptical of a company that makes claims without showing actual photos of people with results (a.k.a. proof)
Jeez can’t believe it’s been 8 years since that article came out. I remember reading it and all the hype about intercytex. They went through phase 2 trials then vanished. Same thing with aderans and every other hair loss company. I’m shocked everyone ignored my comment about SM taking down there hair loss trials from their website . We should focus on that since they claimed to have said they would start larger trials for their hair loss drug. Would be nice to know what happened instead of focusing a scam companies Iike Haircell which hasn’t even started trials. Hopefully samumed is just updating their page to include phase 3 trials. That would be nice :) If this goes down the drain then I’m just seeing a repetitive pattern of all hyped up drugs failing at stage 2 for hairloss. It’s like they can’t get past it to phase 3.
Has histogen and sisheido officially commence phase 3 and phase 2 or are they still saying it’s happening soon?
So mjones it seems like you have been obsessed with the hair loss world for over 10 years since the time of Aderans and Intercytex? i.e., obsessed since your teenage years?
https://www.hairlosscure2020.com/lessons-from-aderans-and-intercytexs-hair-multiplication-failures/
And despite all the companies and products that you have seen failing for years you still waste your time at this? Why on earth would you think there will be a cure before 2030?
The funny thing is that by far the biggest failure ever is Dr. Cotsarelis (20 plus years of always promoting the coming cure or new breakthrough!!) and yet you are so desperate to get an appointment with him despite repeated rejections from his office. You seem to hero worship that guy.
FYI — Between the two accounts that you have used (probably due to using two different emails and computers) you have way more comments on this blog than anyone else including myself. If you had spent all this time in 10 years working on a cure in your kitchen, maybe Cotsarelis would now be worshiping you!
ouch …
apply water on burned area
Actually since I was 21. No cots never turned down an appointment with me admin. I had to cancel my appointment in July due to work related customer meetings that I couldn’t pass on.
You out of all people should know that a cure is not possible. Everyone with a business degree and an understanding of politics should know this. I’m not on these sights searching for the cure lol. I’m on here to seek advice from fellow peers like Phil Collins and NASA and Tom who had given me good advice on how to use current treatments and feedback on lllt. It’s good to see what others are using to help my hair situation until a better TREATMENT comes out that can stabilize loss and grow some hair back. I also have given many people on this site advice, especially some newbies on what to use since I have been very successful holding on to my hair with Propecia for 12 years.
As for cots I do believe he will bring us the next treatment. It takes at least 10 to 12 years to bring a treatment to market via fda protocols. If you do the math you can see he is on track with that time line since the start of Follica. The rest of the years he was doing research like Elaine fuchs, and Christiano.
As for me being obsessed, it’s not obsession buddy, it’s having a strong interest in a hair loss problem that I want to fix. BTW I’m not the one who created a website on hair loss. There is no need for you to mock me and call me crazy. If anything you should be happy I’m on your site and posting. I’m another hair loss sufferers who appreciates your hard work for bringing us information. I just don’t understand why you bust my balls so much.
mjones, I would have quit my job to get a chance to spend 5 minutes with Cotsarelis. He would cure me and I would then get a much better job… perhaps as a fashion model. Am very disappointed that you did not skip your work meetings and instead dumped the great Mr. Cotsarelis.
Haha…lol admin
Why hasn’t anyone of these guys who doesn’t think there will ever be a cure start thereisnocurecuzwellwesaid.com they could boast all day about how naive everyone else is on there then. Hell there could be point system you could bet on which company is gonna fail first and just stick to that site instead of nagging on other sites that are literally a watch tower for the cure.
H, I have thought the same thing many times:-)
hey long time viewer, first time commenter. Rivertown looks more promising than Brotzu but lets not get our hopes up to high despite all of their promises n pictures. thoughts admin?
Link removed as the same one was posted a few times before on this blog. My thoughts are in the below link (and Rivertown was also mentioned in another post of mine if you do a search via the top magnifying glass icon or via the categories menu on this blog):
https://www.hairlosscure2020.com/brief-items-of-interest-june-2016/
Company too new to read too much into it.
Hi admin. Do have any thoughts on sm? Do you speculate they are finished?
Hate to put all my eggs in one basket but Tsuji ya Tsuji… I like the guy because he’s not just doing this whole hair deal for us but to move later on to making full organs leading me to believe he’ll perfect this method first. I think he’s the guy to bring us a full head of hair. He may not just like all the others he could crash and burn but I feel like he’s the real deal.
Admin,
I read the interview and that quote about Higgins and 20 years, no where does it indicate she was referring to topical ..? So i dont know where solomon saw that? I would like to agree with Solomon but in the interview it does not indicate that she was referring to topical. To me she was referring to a cure/cloning? Pls respond. Thanks
Hi Matt I said “injection” and not”topical”….the last question in that interview has the word “injection” in it and I think that is what Solomon meant.
Hey admin, sorry if this is a bit off topic but going back to laser treatment, I was wondering what is in your opinion the best laser helmet? I’ve heard of theradome and irestore now and I used the hairmax laser comb (which requires tiring manual use, though I did see minor results). With a cure still seemingly a ways away, I’d like a drug- free way to hold on my my current hair as long as possible (or at least slow down its regression). So yeah, I’m strongly considering purchasing a laser helmet and wanted your and other’s opinions.
Hey Daniel I have never tried any of the helmets, but I assume the number of diodes and the light wavelength would be the two main criteria to look for.
Thank you. I think I might just suck it up and start using my laser comb a few times a week again. We’ll see.
Oh wow, intercytex claim though make me to doubt tsuji and shesiedo :/
Hace desde que tengo uso de razón que faltan cinco años para que salga una solución a este problema. Hasta que no vea algo concreto yo no creo nada de nada.
Hay varias companias que dicen que van a tener un tratamiento en 2018/2019. Paciencia young padawan.
I always read the conspiracy theories and they are absolutely wrong, I’ll say this as a researcher, working in this field.
The problem with AGA is that it is a genetic condition.
Genetic conditions are complex to solve because you are not dealing with an unicellular organism such as in diseases such as bacteria or RNA structures such as viruses, which are not even consider living organisms.
Genetic conditions are unique to each individual and highly complex, the same statements goes for cancer. Cancer as AGA, is specific for each person.
I will like to give an example to make this clear, before 20th century most people tooth would decay over time, causing them to fall. Some people are genetically predisposed to lose their teeth, if your genetic conditions did not allow for appropriate normalization that will protect them. The introduction of fluoride in toothpaste allowed for those who were genetically predisposed to suffer a demineralization, by providing 3 times a day with a product that could give them this ability.
The teeth problem is more easily solved, because an chemical element is able to solve the problem, however AGA is way more complex.
Advances in medicine make a more viable treatment for AGA, however this solutions are more likely to be within a 5 years time period, rather than within 2 years as some companies have claimed.
Further more this new treatments are not likely to solve all types of alopecias, rather they are targeted for mild forms of AGA.
So I will like to conclude, that there is a treatment in the near future, but it is around 5 years from now. That treatment may probably only solve the mild form of AGA, and finally there are companies who will take advantage of this whole situation, giving unrealistic expectations when they have no probability of finding a new treatment, but they are in the business of raising money. This companies affect the credibility of those companies such as Replicel-Shiseido, which are really at the cornerstone to give a complete solution, to some of the people that suffer AGA.
Who do you work for?
I also think we are closer to a treatment than a cure. It’s just hard to believe that we are 4 more years away from the cure, lol
On FT has anyone seen the before/after photo of the man and woman on follicle thought that used rivertowns RT1640? A 42 year old man w. Mpb had like complete regrowth of his crown that was in pretty bad shape. I may be really late in finding this out, but the page was only updated recently so I dont think so. Check it out. If these are the results then this is pretty much a cure…
I saw this as well. The only concerns for me are the lighting in the male picture. It’s significantly different. With that said though, there is no denying that the man got pretty modest regrowth regardless of lighting.
Rivertown also tied for “best in show” in the mid atlantic bio angels science competition, and their claims that 100% of their treated patients have received satisfactory results (many getting “complete regrowth”) are definitely intriguing.
Hair is definitely a bit longer and there is obviously a flash used in the first photo and no flash in the second.
Either way… that is growth after 3.5 months and is looking pretty good. I’m interested in seeing more.
Im not sure the lighting is significantly darker though. In one shot he has a large bald spot that the light clearly reflects off of. In the next there is no bald spot for any reflection. I’m not denying it is different, but I dont think its much darker. And its from the same angle which I like.
I’m not too concerned about the flash… but there definitely is one in the first photo – the centered hot spot – and the second photo is all flat lighting (no flash). We all know photography isn’t the hairloss industry’s strong suit.
It’s crazy how much a flash can fool people. My brother’s ex took a photo of the back of his head when they were camping 2 years ago at night (so it was the only light source)… and it legit looked like he had a bald spot. When I checked it and combed through his hair it was very obvious that he didn’t have one… still to this day he doesn’t have a bald spot but it freaked him out for sure. And no big surprise he broke up with his girlfriend.
I’m more interested in the data and protocol before any photos get me excited.
Yup was discussed here many times and HLT threads on it suggest mostly scepticism.
The lighting on the pictures is so different one can’t make any serious analysis. It smells like a scam
I would love to see hair transplants become a thing of the past!
http://www.star2.com/living/viewpoints/2016/09/11/stem-cells-for-hair-loss/
Stem cells for hair loss “Interesting”….
Great blog Admin.
Admin can you look into pilox and maybe do a similar raffle for a pilox/hairgene device?
There are pilox before/afters (probably 30+) over different forums. If you could compile them here, with some commentary, it would make a good post.
It would be even better with a raffle.
Hi Biggie I will email the company and see if they are interested in a raffle.
A cure is not possible within 4 years, there is no technology or knowledge available.
A cure will require to be able to modify the genetic structure of a patient, since AGA is a genetic condition that offers no possibility for physical modification such as orthodontics or rhinoplasty.
This type of treatment is called gene therapy.
I do not see medicine taking that leap in 4 years, when as of today there is not even a Gene Identification of what causes cells to become susceptible to DHT, and which is only the first step. The second step is being able to modify the DNA structure to change that susceptibility and the final step is being able to modify those genes on living organisms.
Today what resembles more to a cure are 2 different treatments: micro wounding, provided that the compounds are able to grow hair with DHT resistant characteristics and hair cloning, both of them offer the potential for an unlimited amount of new hair created or cloned.
Exactly ! Now tsuji claimed that he can clone hair and will be available in 2020. But wait, where is the proof of a result!?! He has a mouse result then there is no guarantee this will succeed. Look at intercytex and its big claim and even deciding about the price and was successful in human trail but then it vanished like nothing was happened. The conclusion is the future is blurred so don’t get too excited
They’ve already partnered up with Riken and Kyocera and publicly announced their plans idk if organizations like that screw around.
@Alb
You don’t need to figure out the complex genetic architecture to destroy cells’ sensitivity to DHT with gene therapy. All you would need to do, theoretically, is knock out AR in the scalp.
Anyway, speaking of complex genetic architecture…For those who haven’t seen it, there’s a big new GWAS preprint out that finds what looks like around 60-something loci associated with AGA: http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/08/31/072306
Cramming a few observations in…
AR is the most significant hit, and then there’s also SRD5A2 (5-alpha-reductase type II).
There are a lot of hits for components of the Wnt pathway — WNT10A, WNT3 or WNT6, LRP6, DKK2, LGR4, ZNRF3, RSPO2, and CTNNB1 (beta-catenin). There’s also a scaffold protein (a protein that regulates formation of complexes of other proteins) called IQGAP1, which can play a role in Wnt signaling, among many other things. There was a proteomics paper a few years ago that found IQGAP1 levels were higher in dermal papilla cells from bald scalp, and estrogen is known to downregulate IQGAP1 in hair follicles.
There are components of other pathways important in hair follicle formation and regulation — PDGFA and PLCG1 (PLC-gamma) in the PDGF (platelet-derived growth factor) pathway, with maybe FYN (a Src-like kinase) being involved in that pathway as well. AFAIK the PDGF ligand itself is only produced in epithelial cells of the hair follicle, while the PDGF receptor is only expressed in dermal papilla cells. FGF5 (another GWAS hit) is also expressed only in epithelial cells (as well as macrophages surrounding the hair follicle to a lesser extent) and binds to FGF receptors in the dermal papilla to initiate catagen. So there are some epithelial -> dermal interactions involved. That would also apply to Wnt as well — DPCs are dependent on epithelial Wnt ligands. RSPO2 is expressed only in dermal papilla cells, which suggests that the Wnt signaling that’s important in AGA may be dermal Wnt signaling rather than epithelial. The dermal papilla is also the site of crosstalk between AR and beta-catenin. One study found AR binding to beta-catenin was enhanced in DPCs from bald subjects.
There are at least a couple genes associated with embryonic pattern formation — PAX1 is a huge GWAS hit (and known already) and TBX15.
TWIST1 (near HDAC9) is overexpressed in AGA according to two separate microarray studies; TWIST1 knockout mice have a longer anagen phase and accelerated hair growth. TWIST2 is also there, and according to one microarray study is underexpressed in AGA. TWISTs have a somewhat redundant role, but are known to play a role in f.e. suppressing transcription of cytokine genes by NF-kB as part of a negative feedback loop (where NF-kB upregulates TWISTs). RUNX3 is another GWAS hit with known influence on hair growth, and RUNX3 is also known to interact with TWISTs.
TFAP2A (near OFCC1) may play a role in tissue remodeling in HF morphogenesis and at the start of each hair cycle…
Some of these are baffling though. :D For example, TCHH (trichohyalin, a hair structural protein) — how could _that_ be involved in AGA? And yet, TCHH has been identified in multiple GWAS studies on AGA. Also there are genes expressed specifically in melanocytes like PAX3 and IRF4 (associated with gray hair).
And there are a lot more that I haven’t mentioned than have mentioned lol.
Sorry if I did not explain my self correctly.
First of all I am optimistic toward the new hair loss treatments and like I said these treatments will solve AGA condition.
However these are not cures, because the underlying cause is in your genes. Your own follicles will not go through a permanent transformation allowing them to grow once treated with out the need of any further intervention. Rather they will be either artificially created -such as in hair cloning and with micro wounding-, they will be regenerated or induced to grow -such as in cell therapies like Replicel-, the mechanisms that make the hair vulnerable to DHT will be blocked -such as many of the treatments you mentioned- and more potent and no side effects anti-androgens will allow for hair follicles to receive the least amount of damage -such as in Breezula-.
This combination of new treatments will allow for people to maintain their hair through their life and grow or have transplanted cloned hair where they have lost their hair, but they will not be “cured”. If they stop treatment, all hair that has not been artificially created or implanted will be lost.
That is why I used the example of fluorine in toothpaste, because also in these cases persons who are predisposed to suffer from demineralization of their teeth are helped by fluorine, however if these population stop using fluorine their teeth will eventually decay and fall.
I bring this forward, because in the past a lot of projects failed, because they have a holistic approach toward AGA. Even though this approach sounds very promising, its almost impossible to solve a problem when you put it in a complex form, instead of breaking it in a series of smaller problems that are in fact addressable.
New treatments are more humble, and that is were they are achieving better results, because the old perspective placed unreachable objectives and boards sooner or later became disenchanted.
The problem is that there are some companies, that keep using this old ways, not because they believe in their potential, but to attract investors and this makes it difficult for those companies that actually have solid research.
I think you have a different definition of a cure then most people here. Most here including myself would call Tsuji’s work a cure because you can go in slick bald get the treatment and have DHT resistant follicles. No it doesn’t address the underlying genetic causes but does that even matter anymore if your new follicles are immune. You won’t need anti androgens or any other treatments after, you can go on with your life which makes it a cure in my eyes
Alb you make some great points in all your comments…however, perhaps your definition of cure is different from most people’s?
— If there is any medication (e.g., Dutasteride) that works for life on some people and causes them to stop losing hair, in my book its a cure for those people if they already have a decent head of hair and are able to maintain it.
— If they clone hair from the back of the scalp and it remains permanent once transplanted to the front, I would consider that a cure too even if its not your original frontal hair.
— Even any kind of treatment that needs to be repeated daily or annually is still a cure if it lets you always have a full head of hair.
— For some people, even a hair transplant is a cure if it last for decades and further existing hair loss can be prevented.
You are probably correct that a true definition of a cure is gene therapy or gene modification, and that will only come sooner if people start doing what Liz Parrish did this year and take things into their own hands in foreign countries….a bit too risky just to gain hair that way.
“This combination of new treatments will allow for people to maintain their hair through their life and grow or have transplanted cloned hair where they have lost their hair, but they will not be “cured”.” – Alb
Great comment Bob!
some you people are messed up…either think WAY too much about stuff, or say things like “there will be no cure in 4 years, because there is no knowledge or tech…” serious. F’ed up people. Why bother lurking let alone commenting if you know so much? fly.
Dont JAK inhibitors only work on AA tho?
They are only PROVEN to work on AA (via their immunosuppressant effects), but research indicates that JAK signaling is also responsible for preventing follicles from entering their growth phase, and therefore inhibition of JAK signaling allows miniaturized follicles to grow again. This isn’t proven in humans but it’s currently being tested in a study that I believe will conclude in 2017.