Dr. Christiano Sheds Light on JAK Inhibitors
Dr. Christiano recently did an audio interview about her research on JAK inhibitors for hair growth. The interview covers most of the information we’ve already heard, and also brings forth a few insightful comments from the researcher. The question that everyone still wants to know is if these JAK inhibitors could be useful for common hair loss or androgenic alopecia. Her answer was: maybe. She did say that these JAK drugs were the most efficient thing she has seen for turning on the hair follicle growth cycle in a long time, which is promising. Dr. Christiano explained that at this point it is necessary for a company with resources to move the JAK research into clinical trials. However, she made it clear that it would be fairly quick and easy to determine whether these JAK drugs were effective for hair growth during initial trials, making them a safer investment. I personally believe that a keen company, perhaps a company like Kythera, will be knocking at her door soon enough to inquire about the JAK inhibitor work. One important tidbit that I picked up from the interview is that apparently the JAK drugs need to be at a high local concentration around the hair follicle to have an effect on it’s growth. This could mean that a topical solution with enhanced permeability would be a great choice for delivery.
Finally, one thing I found interesting during the interview was that the interviewer mentioned that research on using JAK inhibitors for 3D cultured dermal papillae cells was eye opening and that he was very surprised no one was talking about it or mentioned it in the media. If you look back to my initial article, the terrific news about Tofacitinib promoting the inductivity of dermal papillae cells was highlighted and the picture of it’s results was shared.