The Future of Baldness

Men have been seeking an ultimate cure for baldnessunder development, there are already some products
for thousands of years but until very recently allavailable on the market that seek to emulate the
available cures were either cosmetic cover-ups ormechanism of telomerase action but they have no
vitamin/mineral pills and herbal lotions, with many ofscientific backing and should be avoided. Telomerase
them just being scams. It was only with the adventresearch could really change the world of medicine
of finasteride and minoxidil and improvements madebut its commercial application might be a good
in hair transplantation techniques in recent years thatdecade away.
the new era began, enabling hair loss sufferers to haltHair multiplication, often called hair cloning, is the next
the further progression of the balding process andhopeful treatment option being developed. This
replace the missing hair on top of their head using thetechnique involves extracting the hair follicles from
hair left at the back of their scalp. However, to thisthe back of the patient's scalp, culturing and
day no ultimate cure for baldness exists.multiplying them and injecting the newly-grown, hair
There are presently several promising drugs and newcells into the bald scalp. Among several teams of
techniques under development but none of thesescientists on three continents researching hair
new therapies is expected to hit the market beforemultiplication, the UK healthcare firm Intercytex
2010.appears to be the frontrunner. Intercytex reported
NEOSH101 is being developed by the US firm Neosilresults of the latest stage of the clinical phase II
and it is currently undergoing phase IIb clinical testing.study of ICX-TRC (a suspension of a patient's own
NEOSH101 has been proven to be a more powerfuldermal papilla cells) in March 2008 and they were
and faster-acting, hair growth stimulant than minoxidillargely positive. The next release is expected in
and it only needs applying once daily. ThoughSeptember 2008. This therapy might hit the market
significantly improving the current hair loss treatmentin 2010 at the earliest. The main benefit of hair
options, NEOSH101 is not going to become anmultiplication would be solving the shortage of donor
ultimate cure for baldness. The clinical trials seem tohair that is the main limiting factor in hair
be advancing slower than most hair loss suffererstransplantation.
would like and, hence, do not hold your breath for itGenerating hair follicles in hair-free skin wounds is a
hitting the market anytime soon. NEOSH101 is mainlycompletely new approach to regrowing hair. It was
expected to replace minoxidil and some other, lessdiscovered accidentally as wounded skin in mice
powerful hair growth stimulants.started producing new hair. This technology is
Another promising line of development is thecurrently being developed by the US medical device
telomerase research. Telomerase is an enzyme thatcompany, Follica, that licensed this technology from
is able to put natural caps on telomeres and thusthe University of Pennsylvania. Though this method
protect them from shortening. Telomerase therebymay sound weird it only uses common instruments
maintains the genomic integrity. Shortened telomeresand drugs that have already been medically approved
are associated with the premature aging processes.and thus it might not take too long for it to become
However, the uncontrolled activation of telomeraseavailable.
can cause cancer. Cancer research is the main focusThis is the list of only a few promising treatments for
of the telomerase study but scientists are alsobaldness that are being currently developed but many
looking for other applications, such as anti-aging drugsothers are in the pipeline. It seems that becoming
and drugs against baldness and grey hair. Although stillbald will soon be by choice rather than destiny.