Follica at it again?!

[Swooping]

Credit to "Xaser94" for finding the following information;

http://puretechhealth.com/images/investors/4179_PureTech-ARA_complete.pdf

So what do you guys think? False promises or real potential coming from Follica?

[pilipili]

Looking at the team involved I guess we can expect something coming out of this. At least a little something...

[stratowich]

They probably waited so long to really get things started until the approval of Cotsarelis' patent application, which was the case at the end of last year:

http://www.google.com/patents/US9220926

[iaskdumbquestions]

Follica back at it again with the hair loss treatment.

But seriously what is this? Controlled dermarolling? And wasn't the consensus always that wounding wasn't to increase absorption.

[NeedHairASAP]

I've been interested in the wounding strategy for a long time.

I'm a little surprised they aren't using lasers for the wounding. I would think that would be easier to fine-tune the exact damage you're trying to inflict, as oppose to just dermarolling.

Either way, lots of science behind wounding and hair growth... it was just a matter of time until the nailed down a protocol for it.

[allTheGoodNamesAreTaken]

Another one repeatedly written off as dead... good news.

[Westonci]

cool

[noisette]

Yeah, it's pretty cool ! I crossed my fingers for this.
Follica gives a job:

"Follica is launching a novel device system for the treatment of hair loss, building on the breakthrough connection between wound repair and hair follicle neogenesis"

source here : http://puretechhealth.com/careers.php?gh_jid=189240

[noisette]

Cotsarelis, Washenik and Christiano at SID Annual Meeting : 13 May 2016

75th SID Annual Meeting will take place on May

Friday, May 13, 2016:
- Cotsarelis and Washenik : " Effect of Prostaglandin D2 on hair follicle growth and its impact on hair follicle stem/progenitor cells ".

- Angela Christiano : " Gene expression signatures and ALADIN score correlates with response of alopecia areata patients to treatment with JAK inhibitors ".

Screen and page 72
Source : http://www.sidnet.org/Files/2016%20S..._Final_web.pdf

[rdawg]

Great stuff, finally some news to kick off 2016!

That release schedule seems very near, but I do clearly remember cotsarelis talking about this about 2 years ago to Desmond!

He said they already knew about wounding and had an interesting product that had an effect on hairloss, but everything was silent after that, until this post!

excited to see some results here, as well as the next round of results from SM

[noisette]

Yes Bro me too

If you want to keep an eye on their abstract (I try to ask the authors of this study if I can have more details or the full paper who knows )

K. Washenik and Cotsarelis Abstract:
Prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) and its synthesizing enzyme, PGD2 synthase, are present at higher levels in balding versus non-balding scalp in men with androgenetic alopecia. Our previous observations (Garza, 2012) in a mouse model that PGD2 inhibits hair growth via CRTH2/ PTGDR2, one of two PGD2 receptors, led us to hypothesize that PTGDR2 is the key receptor mediating the hair growth inhibitory activity of PGD2 in human follicles. In this study we tested several pharmacological PTGDR2 antagonists for their anti-PGD2 activity on human hair growth in vitro. We found that PTGDR2 antagonists reversed the growth inhibition mediated by PGD2, in a dose-dependent manner (p<0.01), by reducing PGD2-triggered apoptosis and maintaining keratinocyte proliferation. Topical administration of PGD2 to mice resulted in shortening of the anagen phase and accelerated entry into catagen, while applying a PTGDR2 antagonist to mice extended anagen phase, resulting in longer hair. RNA-Seq analysis on cultured human hair follicles showed decreased expression of hair follicle progenitor cell markers, such as CD34 and K19, in the PGD2 treated group. FACS analysis of mouse skin cells showed decreased Ki67-positive cells in the secondary hair germ population prior to anagen re-entry in PGD2 treated mice (p=0.029). These results suggest that PGD2 suppresses the activation of the secondary germ/ hair progenitor cells. Our findings further underscore the key role of PGD2 in regulating hair growth and indicate that pharmacological antagonism of PTGDR2 may be an effective approach in preventing and/or treating alopecia in patients sensitive to PGD2.

[rdawg]

Will they be showing results/affect on Friday?

[Pentarou]

Anything come of this, or is it yet another dead end?

[matlondon]

any updates on this?

[baldybald]

any updates on this?

No, not really. We have to wait at least till November for the Congress