Cancer Drug May Also Cure Baldness?

Could a cancer drug also cure baldness? The findings are published in the journal Science Advances.

In an experiment with mice and human hair follicles, researchers discovered that by inhibiting the Janus Kinase (JAKE) family of enzymes, they could restore hair growth in certain forms of male pattern baldness.

"JAK inhibitors seem to be among the very few number of compounds that produce hair growth very soon after their application," Dr. Angela Chistiano, said via CBS News.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have been working on growing hair in mice in a laboratory setting with the help of drugs already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The drugs include ruxolitinib (Jakafi), which is currently approved to treat blood diseases, and tofacitinib (Xeljanz), which is typically used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

The mice in the study were treated for five days with one of the two drugs. The study showed that the inhibitors rapidly awakened resting follicles out of dormancy, accelerating hair growth within 10 days of using the JAK inhibitors. However, no hair grew in untreated control mice during the study period. The drugs also produce longer hair from human hair follicles grown in culture and on skin grafted onto mice.

"The hair that came in came in beautifully and in a few weeks and very thickly," Christiano added, via NBC News. "There are very few compounds that can push hair follicles into their growth cycle so quickly," she added. "Some topical agents induce tufts of hair here and there after a few weeks, but very few have such a potent and rapid-acting effect."

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