London - A twice-a-day pill that can cure a common form of baldness has been developed.
It has enabled three patients to grow back a full head of hair in only five months.
Researchers hope that it will eventually be a standard treatment for alopecia.
Up to one in 500 Britons are believed to suffer from alopecia areata, which is most common between the ages of 15 and 29. It is thought to be caused by a problem with the immune system in which cells destroying hair follicles.
There are no treatments and although some patients’ hair grows back naturally, others remain bald for life.
Scientists from the Columbia University Medical Centre in New York were able to identify the cells responsible for destroying the hair follicles – immune cells known as T cells. They successfully tested several treatments, known to stop the action of these cells, on mice.
The researchers then tested one drug – ruxolitinib – on three men who were almost completely bald. They were given a pill to take twice a day and between four and five months all had regrown a full head of hair.
Although it could successfully treat alopecia, there is no suggestion the pill could cure male pattern baldness, which affects 6.5 million men in Briton.
This is a separate condition which occurs when the hormone testosterone causes the hair follicles to stop functioning.
Well-known alopecia sufferers include comedy star Matt Lucas and Olympic cyclist Joanna Rowsell and TV presenter Gail Porter. Porter’s hair began falling out in 2005 when she was just 33. Although it began growing back in 2006, by the end of the year it had started falling out again although it has since regrown.
Dr Raphael Clynes, whose study is published in the journal Nature Medicine, said: “If the drug continues to be successful and safe, it will have a dramatic positive impact on the lives of people with this disease.”
Professor David Bickers, a practising dermatologist at Columbia who has treated many patients with the condition, said: ‘There are few tools in the arsenal for the treatment of alopecia areata that have any demonstrated efficacy. This is a major step forward.’
Recently it emerged that a woman with alopecia had grown back a full head of hair after taking steroid pills for a chest infection.
She was told not to continue on the drug because of side effects but hopes her hair will remain. – Daily Mail