I originally wrote this post in 2020 and covered the hair growth effects of increasing prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α). Not to be confused with decreasing prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) for more hair.
Update: December 14, 2022
Dermaliq Therapeutics: Prostaglandin F2α Analogue Clinical Trials
Earlier today, Dermaliq Therapeutics (US) announced that it has begun Phase 1b/2a clinical trials for its DLQ01 solution (h/t “Nick”). This product is a topical Prostaglandin F2α analogue that will be used to grow hair in men with androgenetic alopecia (aka male pattern baldness). You can check out Dermaliq’s home page for its pipeline.
The DLQ01 topical formulation is based on hyliQ®, Dermaliq’s novel and proprietary platform technology. The trials will be conduced at Dr. Rodney Sinclair’s cliinic in Australia and will last for six months. Dr. Sinclair is currently also conducting trials for Hope Medicine’s HMI-115 prolactin blocker. Make sure to read that post for one trial volunteer’s biweekly updates.
According to Dr. Betsy Hughes-Formella (Chief Scientific Officer at Dermaliq):
“Dermaliq’s hyliQ® technology has the potential to transform follicular and dermal delivery of a broad range of active ingredients. DLQ01 is just the start of a promising pipeline targeting follicular delivery.”
June 27, 2020
In a number of past posts, I have discussed how hair loss is impacted by prostaglandins (lipids). Most of my focus has been on how a reduction in prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) levels benefits hair growth. In this post, I will discuss how an increase in levels of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and PGF2a (PGF2α) leads to hair growth.
It has also been hypothesized that the balance between PGE2 and PGD2 levels controls hair growth. Increased levels of PGD2 and reduced levels of PGE2 have been observed in the scalps of men suffering from androgenetic alopecia (AGA). Also of note, PGE2 is known to act synergistically with PGF2 alpha
PGE2 and Hair Growth
PGE2 (also known as dinoprostone) is a naturally occurring prostaglandin that is also known to interact with Wnt signaling. A number of studies have shown that increasing PGE2 levels on the scalp can benefit hair growth.
An interesting 2019 study found that one of the ways in which skin and tissue injury can sometimes lead to hair growth is via an increase in PGE2.
A 2018 case report from Spain found that the drug Omeprazole induced hypertrichosis (excessive body hair) in two children. This side effect resulted from a significant increase in prostaglandin E2 levels. Once Omeprazole therapy was stopped, the excess body hair entirely disappeared after six months.
One of the ways in which Minoxidil works to grow hair is via increasing PGE2 levels.
Dexamethasone and Sulfasalazine can both increase prostaglandin E2 levels significantly.
Natural products such as castor oil are thought to raise PGE2 levels, and potentially benefit hair growth. Even if true, such gains will be modest at best in my opinion.
PGF2α (aka PGF2a) and Hair Growth
PGF2α acts by binding to the prostaglandin F2α receptor. When injected into the body or amniotic sac, PGF2α can either induce labor or cause an abortion in a pregnant woman. PGF2a levels are higher in people with non-balding scalps.
In the past, I have written in detail about the glaucoma drug Bimatoprost. This drug is an analog of prostamide F2a, which is almost the same as prostaglandin F2a. Bimatoprost raises both PGF2a and PGE2 levels, and is therefore the key ingredient in eyelash hair growth drug Latisse.
Another analogue of prostaglandin F2a is the well known drug Latanaprost. It prolongs the anagen phase of the hair cycle via the prostaglandin effect.
Another glaucoma and high eye pressure relief drug named Travoprost has a patent related to its scalp hair growth properties. Travaprost raises both PGF2α and PGE2 levels on the scalp when applied topically.
The only other major PGF2a analogue pharmaceutical on the market is called Carboprost.
Bimatoprost and Latanaprost are used off-label by patients of a hairtransplant clinic I visited 3 years ago.
The respectable ISHRS surgeon said that BIM is relatively expensive and that the results for AGA are non-existent.
He seemed to be disappointed that FIN and DUT formed the only real defense against AGA at that moment.
So are we.
Admin, you posted in 2015 about preliminary bimatoprost results for AGA released by Allergan…the documents you linked have since been taken down. https://www.hairlosscure2020.com/bimatoprost-results-are-finally-out/
To that end, Allergan 2015 R&D Day has two slides on bimatoprost (slides 118 and 119), one with a before & after picture and another depicting graphs from a clinical trial. It appears they had a bimatoprost 3% topical solution that was promising. https://allergan-web-cdn-prod.azureedge.net/actavis/actavis/media/allergan-pdf-documents/investors/investor%20kit/rd_day-2015-am-pm-web.pdf
To piggyback off of the Allergan clinical trial, the results were never published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, but they are available here: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/results/NCT01904721
…further, a systematic review and meta-analysis titled “Efficacy of Of‑Label Topical Treatments for the Management
of Androgenetic Alopecia: A Review” was published last year in the Springer Nature journal “Clinical Drug Investigation”. The meta-analysis shows Latanoprost having the best results in the primary outcome of mean change in hair density (hairs/cm2) after 24 weeks, out of 14 different (off-label) topicals. Bimatoprost A (bimatoprost 3%) was in the middle.
https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/s40261-018-00743-8
Thanks Phil! Very interesting.
Excuse me. I made a mistake talking about Efficacy of Of‑Label Topical Treatments for the Management of Androgenetic Alopecia: A Review. Clin Drug Investig
. 2019 Mar;39(3):233-239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40261-018-00743-8. The study is a systematic review only, and not a meta-analysis.
I used latisse on my scalp for 6 months. It didnt do anything but recede my right temple a bit more and caused my face to get oily. I was on min and fin as well for a long time. There is a reason allergen cancelled the trial. It’s expensive and it doesn’t work well enough for a profit.
New post About Prostaglandins? Is there actually News or just something to entertain us in times without anything new?
BTW did somebody use this or know results? How quick will Applied Biology bring something to market? In Russia already approved and available.
http://gurus.bio/alopecia-treatment
I never wrote an actual post on PGE2, to my surprise. Mentioned it briefly in a few other posts. I covered PGD2 in far greater detail.
There was the interesting 2019 study I added in there regarding tissue injury and PGE2 increase. Seems like wounding is a miracle treatment for many reasons.
I want to use this cosmetic drug in Russia but I’m not sure in the quality of it. Can someone connect Applied Biology and ask what they think about it? If they will say that it can work I will buy it and use then send you report about it
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-24/coronavirus-baldness-may-be-risk-factor-covid-19/12385216
Here’s how they will cure baldness … they’ll get rid of us..LOL
Has nothing to do with the fact that the vast majority of old people are suffering from hair thinning/baldness. Very critical observation
Admin, allow me to go (a little) off topic here.
I just bought a recently discovered article about Tsuji from Jan/2020 where he there is the latest update about his research. It’s not very recent but I believe it’s the *most* recent piece we have about him and it’s being brought up in the “hairloss community” for the first time.
Here a copy of the article:
https://imgur.com/a/kDTPfUm
The user RolfLeeBuckler from the Hairlosstalk forum is the one who originally found out about the existence of this article but couldn’t buy the full version of it.
I’m sharing this here because I don’t have a user there and their signup process is not working (the verification e-mail never arrives in my inbox).
It would be great if someone could let RolfLeeBuckler know that I bought the article as he volunteered to translate it. He is posting in the “Update From The God Himself – Dr. Takashi Tsuji” thread over Hairlosstalk.
Thanks!
Thanks! Someone posted it there now. Can you email me the article too by any chance? My email address is on the contact page of this site.
Sure, e-mail sent!
Thanks, just got it and replied.
Businesswire.com. Applied Biology COVID-19 anti-androgen patient
considered for special COVID 19 prioritized examination in US patient and treatment. Maybe they could rush a hair loss product for us we’ve been so lucky for the last 20 years
Yes, bald lives matter
It’s about time…
Applied biology needs to stop bsing with covid and mpb link and release their stupid minox enhancing shampoo. Tired of seeing stupid sht left and right from these companies. Release a product or stfu. Sorry for the rant but it was needed.
It’s needed. don’t apologize, These companies and scientists they like to take there sweet time it’s very suspicious they take there time so that we send them money or they take there time cause if they rush to release something they won’t have a job anymore because we won’t need them to do the research anymore. These hair loss researchers I’m talking about the United States and Europeans they squeeze every dollar out of people that donate yet nothing ever gets released! Except for treatments! Because it’s not in there best interest to cure it. I know and hope Japan and Dr Tsuji can help us.
Bald lives matter!..let’s get the posters ready boys! Lol
It’s all just one big question mark at this stage. Trials and studies left, right an’ centre. At this stage, nothing is certain either way? At least Tsuji is one tiny speck of light on the baldy horizon.
I’ve been following this game page for 5 years now and nothing is on the horizon. Why don’t we just admin that we were dealt a garbage hand in life and nothing is going to change?
Bald34 by far the best comment on here. So very true. We have the big 3 and maybe SM and follica in the next couple years to add 30cm2 hairs and maintenance. That’s prob it for the next decade or so. Pray these treatments work for you 10 to 20 yrs to get you into your 40s. At that time most dudes are nw3 or higher.
Great find, admin.
Another addition, always welcomed. If I understand correctly, the main innovation is the method of delivery/application. Moogene Medi also tries a new delivery method via LNP as a carrier, I think they use Finasteride.
Could Dermaliq‘s platform be used for other molecules too? Prostaglandin is an interesting choice…
Does anybody know how to find a list of dermatological hair specialists? All resources seem to list hair surgeons pushing hair transplants, which is not what I’m interested in.
Most well known dermatologists cannot afford to specialize in hair. Various skin conditions (and procedures such as Botox and lasers) are likely far more important than hair loss when it comes to their practice.
At the same time, most dermatologists who truly specialize in hair are very likely to offer hair transplants.
You will have to find exceptions to the above.
I agree with both Admin and what JoeJohn related. Anyone who offers transplants will ultimately push this on you. They may get you in the door with something else but will default back to transplants. I was lucky to find a derm early on (about 40 years ago) that offered transplants but got me started on minox and then finasteride off label, before FDA approved. More recently I found a derm that prescribed oral minox and some compounded topicals. Unfortunately most derms (and transplant docs) know very little about what’s out there besides off the shelf fin or minox. Many might push bogus garbage like PRP as well.
Agreed…and PRP: don’t get me started. (It’s up there with LLLT and scalp pinching IMO.) That’s $900 I’ll never see again. Could’ve bought myself a personalised arse-kicking machine instead-with change to spare. Be careful out there kiddies…
If it’s that uncommon maybe some people can just drop names of legitimate docs they know. I’d travel anywhere in my state or nearby my state.
What state?
Georgia or Florida or South Carolina or anywhere in the south really
JoeJohn, what are you looking to learn or get from a derm (RX, diagnosis, etc.)?
Basically looking for an alopecia specialist. Somebody who a young kid with hair loss might go to. My entire head is a fuzz ball, no pattern at all. I’m sure there’s a dht component but there’s more going on and I need to experiment with topical steroids ect. Most dermatologists honestly know less than people on this site.
Hey JoeJohn, totally agree that most derms are clueless. Sounds like you have something going on beyond male pattern baldness. I only know of a couple derms in California and afraid I can’t be of much help. Have you searched for a derm at a local University hospital? You might find a reputable one that specializes in hair disorders.