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New Peptide Therapy Could Reverse Hair Loss
by April Maguire
Old age catches up with all of us eventually, and it brings some nasty side effects, including hair loss and decreased stamina. But what if it didn't have to? That is the question at the heart of a new study released from a team of researchers at the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
According to the team, one of the main drivers of the effects of old age is a build-up of what are commonly called senescent cells. In general terms, these are cells that have become damaged to the point that they no longer divide and replicate like normal cells, but they're still yet to die off entirely. Over time, these cells collect in our systems, causing a wide range of health issues.
In the past, there has been a lot of debate about what could be done with these cells. How can you remove them without harming the perfectly healthy cells around them? And even if you could, is there a way to guarantee that new, healthy cells would take their place? Now, the team from Erasmus University seems to have a possible answer.
Inducing Cellular Death
As a means of dealing with cellular senescence, the researchers developed a peptide therapy that specifically targets the damaged cells. Specifically, the peptide blocks the signals between a pair of proteins called p53 and FOXO4. In senescent cells, the interaction of these proteins is crucial, and blocking their communication results in a natural cellular death that doesn't impact the surrounding healthy cells.
Initially, the peptide therapy was developed as a way to improve kidney function. After testing the therapy in mice, however, the researchers discovered that it had other surprising effects as well. Not only did the peptide dramatically improve kidney function, but it also caused fur to regrow in areas that had been bald. And as an added bonus, the mice who were given the peptide treatment developed greater stamina, enabling them to run more than twice as far as mice that were untreated. Plus, in over a year's worth of testing, the team didn't observe any negative side effects.
Overall, these results would seem to indicate that this peptide could offer an effective treatment for a wide swath of age-related problems. The most pressing question now is whether or not the peptide will be as effective in humans. For the next step, the researchers want to test the treatment on people with glioblastoma multiforme brain tumors, since these have properties that are very similar to senescent cells. If the peptide proves effective, it could open the door to treating a number of conditions in the future.
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