According to researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, the drug Ruxolitinib, used for the treatment of a rare bone marrow disease, may be a cure for alopecia areata. The findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine.
Researchers were able to fully regrow hair in mice within four to five months. The new hair lasted months after treatment ceased.
“We’ve only begun testing the drug in patients, but if the drug continues to be successful and safe, it will have a dramatic positive impact on the lives of people with this disease,” said Dr. Raphael Clynes, who led the research.
(Image: Nature Medicine)
Alopecia, a disease that affects the immune system, causes hair to fall out in round patches. Immune cells damage the hair follicles, stopping them from re-growing, but ruxolitinib has caused the follicles to fight those immune cells.
The small new study on seven women and five men using ruxolitinib found that the drug restored hair growth fully in three patients with moderate-to-severe alopecia areata, within four to five months. Dr. David Bickers of CUMC’s Department of Dermatology calls the results “a major step forward in improving the standard of care for patients suffering from this devastating disease.”