“I think it’s a realistic vision,” said Maria Kasper, associate professor of cell and molecular biology at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. However, she stressed that it’s too early to say whether Plikus’ findings will lead to a new treatment for hair loss, noting that alternative treatments are also in development.
For example, Turn Biotechnologies is developing a treatment that uses messenger RNA (mRNA), following the same basic principle as Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid vaccines — delivering genetic instructions to our cells to make them useful. According to co-founder Vittorio Sebastiano, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University, Turn’s goal is to provide the mRNA code for a cocktail of proteins that can reverse the follicle clock. Their treatment, TRN-001, will be delivered to the hair follicle inside the liquid nanoparticles and help reset the stem cells there, making the follicle function younger. “I’d love to get my hair back to 30,” joked Sebastiano, “so that would be a 15-year revival.”
Sebastiano hopes to start clinical trials in humans late next year or early 2024, envisioning a future where TRN-001 is applied locally via microinjection, as Plikus envisioned for SCUBE3. But while the mRNA-based approach may be more effective because it forces the cell to make the associated protein itself, Sebastiano recognizes that the novelty of the technology makes the cost and duration of treatment unpredictable and the regulatory environment more challenging.
In fact, says Kevin McElwee, associate professor of dermatology at the University of British Columbia in Canada and chief scientific officer of hair biotech company RepliCel, that’s why his team isn’t going the mRNA route: “The regulatory issues at the FDA are huge.” Instead , RepliCel and competitor HairClone are working on a cell-based approach to hair loss that transfers hair cells from one part of the scalp to another to promote growth. First, hair follicles were harvested from the back of the human scalp, then the associated cells (dermal papilla cells for HairClone, dermal cup cells for RepliCel) were dissected and cultured, and finally these proliferated cells were microinjected into human bald heads. Some of these cells It is also cryopreserved for future injections.
“The problem with hair transplants is that it’s one-to-one; you still have the same amount of hair, it’s just spread out,” said HairClone CEO Paul Kemp. Using these multiplying techniques, you can add volume to your hair. However, both Kemp and McElwee estimate that the process can take a month or two for the patient from start to finish, and given the physical effort involved, at least initially, this is more expensive than a hair transplant . But the treatment could also be more successful, Kemp said, because “it’s a personalized cell therapy, unlike Plikus’ approach, which is one-size-fits-all.” RepliCel’s therapy has already begun testing on patients in Japan, while HairClone’s Human trials are expected to begin in the UK in early 2023; both countries have more flexible clinical trial requirements than the US.
