Researchers developed a drug to speed up healing … but it had a side-effect.
And the side-effect was … it REVIVED long inactive hair follicles!
Dona Suri
The condition affects about half of American men in the 50+ age group. It does not impair metabolism, digestion, respiration, locomotion or cognitive function. The condition is not life-threatening. In fact, some sufferers have led highly productive lives and made their mark on history …
Yup… This post is about hair loss or baldness. We’ve called it condition because it’s not exactly a disease. It’s genetic: men go bald because their fathers and grandfathers went bald.
An inherited sensitivity to a byproduct of testosterone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT) causes hair to fall out and follicles to become inactive. About one in five post-menopausal women also experience hair loss.
The condition has attracted the attention of medical science even before there was such a thing as medical science.
The Ebers Papyrus (circa 1550 BC) prescribed a cure that combined fat from a hippopotamus, crocodile, tom cat, snake, and ibex in a salve to be rubbed into the scalp.) Roman doctors (circa 50 BC) applied a concoction made from ash of donkey testicles mixed with the urine of the person losing their hair. The Vikings kept it simple: massage the scalp with goose poop.
Until quite recently, the “cures” have been worse than the condition. Modern science has come up with two medications: minoxidil and finasteride. Doctors typically prescribe both medicines together. They work on about 60 percent of all patients. But there is a side effect: finasteride causes erectile dysfunction. What did we say about cures being worse?
Hair transplant is another option but a transplant is no picnic. It’s a long procedure, it hurts, takes time to heal, only about 60 per cent of the new hair plugs survive, it costs around $20,000 and insurance doesn’t cover it.
What can a guy do about hair loss? Best advice:
DON’T FIGHT IT, FLAUNT IT !
What ! We’ve made you read this far only to tell you “Get used to it”?
Of course not. Here comes the story.
Back in 2020, Dr Dymtro Royzman and his colleagues at the Department of Immune Modulation, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany, were looking for something that would speed up recovery of chronic and hard-to-heal wounds (eg diabetic foot ulcer). They experimented with soluble CD83.
Explaining CD83 takes us into deep biochemistry.
CD83 is short for Cluster of Differentiation 83. It is the name of a specific macromolecule of glyco-protein that is mainly produced by dendritic cells, B lymphocytes and T cells. It plays a role in the immune system.
This macromolecule was first discovered in 1992. Nine years later, in 2001, Dr Alexander Steinkasserer (Royzman’s boss at FAU) discovered the effects of soluble CD83 on immunity. After his discovery, the Immune Modulation Department was established for the purpose of finding out absolutely everything about this particular glyco-protein. Steinkasserer is currently the International Big Daddy of CD83 studies and CD83 is the subject of intense research interest all over the world.
Researchers find this macromolecule whenever they are looking at inflammatory reactions and know that it is involved in immunological responses, but all its functions and the way it works are still under investigation.
Certainly it is essential for the activation of T cells that regulate peripheral immune responses and it is one of the markers of mature dendritic cells. Activation, migration, and maturation of dendritic cells initiate protective immunity and immune tolerance. When this process goes wrong, the immune system goes out of balance and the result can be “wrongful” inflammation. In other words, inflammation when the body doesn’t need inflammation.
In the course of a project in 2020, a research team, led by Royzman, found that soluble CD83 accelerated wound healing, not only after systemic but also after topical application. It reduced inflammation and secreted growth factors that stimulated healing and caused the wound to close.
The surprise outcome was that soluble CD83 caused new hair follicles to form!
By 2021 Dr Royzman was sure about soluble CD83 effects on wound healing and hair growth and took out a patent.
Two more years of research followed and last year Drs Steinkasserer, Royzman and Manfred Groeppel set up Mallia Therapeutics to develop soluble CD83 for the treatment of hair loss.
The German state of Bavaria has awarded the new company its m4 Future of Medicine prize which carries EUR 500,000. A press release announced that Mallia also received a hefty amount as seed funding, although it gave no information about who put up the money or how much.
The good news is that not only does soluble CD83 prevent hair loss, accelerate hair growth and induce the growth of new hair, no side effects have been observed (so far) and it works on both androgenetic alopecia (genetic baldness) and the less common alopecia areata (baldness caused by an autoimmune disorder).
Clearly, Mallia Therapeutics is not going to lack for investors and once the product is actually on the market, the company stands to rake it in … or comb it in.
Don’t expect to see this breakthrough hair loss treatment on pharmacy shelves right away. Certainly, in terms of the American market, FDA approval takes years … although sometimes, in case need for a treatment is considered urgent, the FDA can speed up the approval process.
Now, if CD83’s hair growth properties had been discovered before 2021 …
