New hope for patients: Jak-inhibitors stop scarring alopecia!

New hope for patients: Jak-inhibitors stop scarring alopecia!

Wien, Österreich - researchers of the MedUni Vienna have achieved a pioneering progress in the treatment of further hair loss, known as the scarring alopecia, which is often a symptomatic side effect of cancer therapies with EGFR inhibitors. These drugs, which are used in targeted tumor treatment for lung and colon cancer, are effective in combating tumors, but they also cause significant side effects. In particular, the scarring alopecia leads to inevitable hair loss, which has not yet been reversed. Information from today.at show that patients who suffer from these side effects often reduce their drug dose or even cancel the entire treatment, which endangers the success of their cancer therapy.

new therapy option in sight

The scientists' studies now provide a possible way out. JAK inhibitors who are already used in the treatment of other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis can help restore hair growth. The researchers report that the disruption in the EGFR signal path has an overactivation of the JAK-Stat1 signal transmission in the hair roots, which in turn fires the immune and inflammatory reactions. These reactions lead to damage to the hair follicles. The latest preclinical studies with mouse models have shown that targeted inhibition of this signal chain contains the inflammation process and reactivates hair growth, as the MedUni Vienna describes in a current publication.

Karoline Strobl, first author of the study, emphasizes that the denaturing of hair stem cells by these mechanisms in cancer patients that have EGFR inhibitors has significant effects. "JAK inhibitors could not only improve the quality of life of the patient: inside with hair loss, but also the therapy results significantly," says Thomas Bauer, the study director. This new therapy could prove to be decisive for the treatment of scarring alopecia, especially for people who suffer from the side effects of existing cancer therapies. According to the current results published in the renowned specialist journal "Embo Molecular Medicine", there is hope for an early use of this therapy option, which is not only for cancer patients, but also for other affected people of scarring alopecia that have so far been without effective help.

This groundbreaking discovery is eagerly awaited and could change the direction of the treatment of hair loss in cancer patient: fundamentally change inside, as the MedUni Vienna report.

Today.at and MedUni Vienna describe these important developments.