RNA therapeutics!

[isishearmyplea]

So there was this news in the paper about the success of RNA drugs, it said that it worked by turning on/off the genes that regulate protein in cells. can it in any way be used for treatment of male pattern baldness if the technology becomes widespread in the near future.

I am not suggesting it can be the cure, just want to know if the mechanism of the drug(protein regulation) is pertinent to male pattern baldness.

 

[peacemaker]

Most definitely, it's one of many ways that you can attack male pattern baldness. Either you create new dermal papilla cells, or develop RNA drugs to block DKK1 production and promote Fgf9 production. Or you can let the genes produce their stuff and just develop topical inhibitors for PGD2 and promoters for Fgf9 (Which is the easiest one of all and which I think most biotech firms are working on.)

 

[isishearmyplea]

okay. . you seem to be in touch with info related to this, these biotech firms that you mention of, do they have any tentative period by the time they launch something commercially?

Also i read that RNA drugs already treating a few genetic disorders, so why not accelerate research on male pattern baldness and RNA drugs? or does it just come down to preference for disease that affect the mortalitiy :/.

thanks for taking the time, much appreciated.

 

[peacemaker]

Well everything that I say is speculation as I don't have insider information regarding the biotech firms, but I believe that there will be at least one better and safer alternative to finasteride in the upcoming 2-3 years.

You answered the second question yourself. Although there is always a possibility to achieve something, nothing is easy as it seems. As far as I know, there currently are no firms working on creating an RNA drug for male pattern baldness. Even if a company starts developing such a thing it will take a while as human body is a complicated machine and although there were a lot of discoveries in the last 4-5 years, male pattern baldness is still not fully understood. Let alone that, the FDA process to approve such a drug would take anywhere between 5-7 years. Hence, the treatment that you will use to cope with male pattern baldness in your lifetime will most likely not be an RNA drug. Also, seeing that there are 3-4 companies on their way to hopefully releasing their products for male pattern baldness, no team in the world will receive financial backing to attempt to create such a drug (unless histogen, replicel, follica and such biotechs' products are proven ineffective).

 

[isishearmyplea]

i really hope there would be some advances in 2 3 years.

yeah i felt that RNA drugs wont be a reality (for the next 10 15 years at least), but i was kinda worried abt passing this **** gene to my kids, pondering if they would have better options (lol). well i really thought that RNA drugs can be a powerful preventive drug, but as you say , for their advancement the mentioned companies need to fail, what a catch . anyway thanks again for replying. have a good one.

 

[dreamermerlin]

Messing with RNA poses risks of delevoping cancerous cells, i think.

 

[isishearmyplea]

well its funny as they mentioned it was used to treat cancer too, no offence.

 

[bushbush]

RNAi is routinely used to silence genes and probe their function in research.

Problems that limit the use of RNAi to treat hair loss:

- Identifying the (multiple) genes to silence.

- 'Off target effects' Ie. silencing unintended genes.

- Delivery of RNA strands to human cells.

- Cost, especially since RNAi works on the premise of gene silencing and not knock out - repeat treatments would be required.

 

[karankaran]

I know a vaccine is used to prevent infections but can something be developed on a similar concept for male pattern baldness LIKE which will prevent dkk1 expression or increased pgd2 in the scalp? something that is always present in our body and prevents it from happening again. ?????????

 

[benjt]

Vaccines work by triggering the immune system to create specialised antibodies to threats it has never encountered before (and thus to be prepared when it encounters the threat later in life). You cannot create a vaccine against something that is in your body all along, as your immune system does not recognize it as a threat it needs to create antibodies against.

 

[Armando Jose]

Well everything that I say is speculation as I don't have insider information regarding the biotech firms, but I believe that there will be at least one better and safer alternative to finasteride in the upcoming 2-3 years.

You answered the second question yourself. Although there is always a possibility to achieve something, nothing is easy as it seems. As far as I know, there currently are no firms working on creating an RNA drug for male pattern baldness. Even if a company starts developing such a thing it will take a while as human body is a complicated machine and although there were a lot of discoveries in the last 4-5 years, male pattern baldness is still not fully understood. Let alone that, the FDA process to approve such a drug would take anywhere between 5-7 years. Hence, the treatment that you will use to cope with male pattern baldness in your lifetime will most likely not be an RNA drug. Also, seeing that there are 3-4 companies on their way to hopefully releasing their products for male pattern baldness, no team in the world will receive financial backing to attempt to create such a drug (unless histogen, replicel, follica and such biotechs' products are proven ineffective).

The first step in my opinion is know well the process, before start with RNA medicines.....

 

[I.D WALKER]

Always a good idea.

The first step in my opinion is know well the process, before start with RNA medicines.....

 

[karankaran]

Thank you , Benjit!