Drugs developed to fight cancer and rheumatoid arthritis might work
as creams to stimulate hair growth, offering a potential baldness cure,
researchers reported Friday.
While cancer treatments are usually associated
with hair loss, some specialized drugs called JAK inhibitors can
actually help hair grow.
Angela Christiano and colleagues at Columbia University have been testing them as
treatments for a rare form of hair loss called alopecia areata. This
condition is caused by the immune system's mistaken attack on hair
follicles, and the drugs work by suppressing inappropriate immune
responses that's why they help rheumatoid arthritis and some forms of
blood cancer that involve immune cells.
"The surprise was when we started using the drugs on alopecia areata
patients, when we used them topically the hair grew back much faster and
more robustly than it did orally,"
There are several Food and Drug Administration-approved JAK
inhibitors, including ruxolitinib, or Jakafi and tofacitinib, sold under
the brand name Xeljanz.
Because they suppress the immune system, leaving
patients vulnerable to infections, it would be dangerous to use them to
correct something cosmetic like male pattern baldness.
But applying such drugs topically would be far safer.
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