Alopecia cured? New Drug Helps Some Bald Patients Regrow Hair

Doctors could have found a cure for the baldness condition alopecia after a new wonder pill appeared to fully restore the hair of three patients.

Scientists from Columbia University Medical Centre in New York conducted the pilot trial after identifying the immune cells responsible for destroying hair follicles in people with the condition.

The trial patients all had moderate-to-severe alopecia areata, which causes patchy loss of head hair and each was given a 20 milligram dose of ruxolitinib twice a day.

Its effectiveness was linked to the disappearance of T-cell immune cells that attack hair follicles in the scalp.

‘We still need to do more testing to establish that ruxolitinib should be used in alopecia areata, but this is exciting news for patients and their physicians,’ Dr Clynes said. ‘This disease has been completely understudied – until now, only two small clinical trials evaluating targeted therapies in alopecia areata have been performed.’

The trial followed tests on mice using two drugs known as JAK inhibitors that can be taken in pill form and block immune pathways.

Ruxolitinib is approved for the treatment of bone marrow cancer in the US and EU.

The other drug, tofacitinib, is licensed to treat rheumatoid arthritis in the US but not Europe.

Agencies/Canadajournal