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Permalink Reply by Curly on June 30, 2014 at 12:28pm

Hey Monique,

 I too saw the article on this. I just wish the researchers could isolate what helped the man grow his hair. I know they can... Will they do it is the real question?   If I see anything else on this, I will let you know..

  Hmmm!  Seems I may have a touch of arthritis acting-up?  lol....   Curly

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Permalink Reply by Monique on June 30, 2014 at 10:07pm

And you'd think they would be recruiting in here for trial participants. Guess they'll have to round up funding, etc. Ive read mixed reviews regarding side effects.

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Permalink Reply by Tallgirl on June 30, 2014 at 10:46pm

   Please see important message below from the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (naaf.org) regarding an immunosuppressant medication that regrew one man's hair who had alopecia as well as the Yale research article on the drug. (Columbia is one of the main research universities for alopecia which is why it is mentioned below.) Laura Ralph is the support and education director of NAAF and Dory Kranz is president and CEO of NAAF.

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Hi Everyone,

 

Many of you may have heard the news about an arthritis medication regrowing hair on a man with psoriasis and alopecia areata universalis. This is very encouraging. Please read Dory’s message to our board of directors (below) as well as our official NAAF statement.

 

Laura Ralph
National Alopecia Areata Foundation
14 Mitchell Boulevard
San Rafael, CA 94903-2050
Phone:415-472-3780
Fax:415-472-5343
www.naaf.org

From: Dory Kranz
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2014 7:58 AM

A news article came out yesterday regarding an individual with alopecia areata universalis regrowing hair during an 8 month course of treatment with an oral immunosuppressant - tofacitinib citrate.  Gary and Abby hopped right on this and conferred with our advisors at Columbia University on a response (see below).  The scientific article which will be published in the JID is attached and here is a link to a CBS Boston news article from yesterday.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/06/19/hairless-man-grows-full-head-...

Just for your information, one of the reasons for caution in our exuberance is that tofacitinib is an immunosuppressant, not an immunomodulator, and in the current oral form may have side effects for long term use and we don’t know if the hair regrowth is durable without continued drug use.   Columbia University is seeing promising results with another JAK inhibitor -- ruxolitinib -- in a 10 person study and is expanding to include 2 people with AU.  Based on these promising results, Columbia will start a similar small trial with tofacitinib this summer.  They already have a waiting list for enrollees from the ruxolitinib trial.  

NAAF Response:

The National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF) is encouraged by the results of an 8-month course of treatment conducted by researchers at Yale University School of Medicine in which a 25-year-old male patient with alopecia areata universalis was able to regrow a full head of hair, along with eyebrows, eyelashes, and facial, armpit, and other hair when put on a regimen of tofacitinib citrate, an FDA-approved treatment for arthritis.  The drug has also been successfully used in the treatment of psoriasis.

While we remain hopeful, we wish to remind the alopecia areata community this is a preliminary study with the effects of the drug studied on only one individual.  It should be considered preliminary and not validated at this point, and remains to be further studied in clinical trials.  We encourage the researchers at Yale to pursue a clinical trial and are excited that a clinical trial with this drug will be starting at Columbia University this summer.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Dory

Dory Kranz

President & Chief Executive Officer

National Alopecia Areata Foundation

14 Mitchell Boulevard, San Rafael, CA  94903       415-472-3780

 

Check out our Alopecia Areata Treatment Development Program Video

 

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Permalink Reply by Monique on June 30, 2014 at 11:26pm

Do happen to know who the contact at Columbia would be?

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Merriman on July 29, 2021 at 1:20am

In my opinion the natural method is the best one if we want to grow our hair long. We should use natural ingredients such as oil and egg to nourish our hair instead of medical treatment and further, we can pursue dissertation writing services uk to complete our school tasks easily. I hope you understand.

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