A scientific breakthrough discovered to prevent hair loss from chemothe

Undergoing chemotherapy can result in most distressing side effects of modern cancer therapy Losing hair is most dreadful of them But now scientists working towards finding a solution have discovered a new strategy to protect hair follicles from the treatmentAccording to an ANI report a study from the laboratory of Professor Ralf Paus of the Centre for Dermatology Research pointed how the damage in the hair follicle caused by taxanes in the cancer drugs which can cause permanent hair loss can be preventedFor this research scientists have reportedly exploited the properties of a newer class of drugs called CDK46 inhibitors that blocks cell division and are said to be already medically approved as targeted cancer therapiesAlso ReadFood habits at workplace and how it affects your lifestyleDr Talveen Purba the lead author on the study explained Although at first this seems counterintuitive we found that CDK46 inhibitors can be used temporarily to halt cell division without promoting additional toxic effects in the hair follicle When we bathed organcultured human scalp hair follicles in CDK46 inhibitors the hair follicles were much less susceptible to the damaging effects of taxanes A study published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine called taxanes lsquoa very important anticancer drugs commonly used to treat patients with breast or lung carcinoma and particularly cause anxieties among breast cancer patients for the very distressingrsquo and sometimes taxanes can induce longlasting hair lossDr Purba emphasised A pivotal part of our study was to first get to grips with how exactly hair follicles responded to taxane chemotherapy and we found that the specialised dividing cells at the base of the hair follicle that are critical for producing hair itself and the stem cells from which they arise are most vulnerable to taxanes Therefore we must protect these cells most from undesired chemotherapy effects but so that cancer does not profit from itThe team conducting the research reportedly hopes that their work will support the development of externally applicable medicines that will slow or briefly suspend cell division in the scalp hair follicles of patients undergoing chemotherapy to mitigate against chemotherapyinduced hair damageSuch a research could enhance the efficacy of existing preventive approaches ie scalp cooling devices The team of researchers have observed this underfunded field of cancer medicine desperately needs moe work where patients have waited for a long time to see real breakthroughs in prevention of pharmacological hair lossDespite the fact that taxanes have been used in the clinic for decades and have long been known to cause hair loss were only now scratching the surface of how they damage the human hair follicle Dr Purba saidWe also dont really know why some patients show greater hair loss than others even though they get the same drug and drugdose and why it is that certain chemotherapy regimens and drug combinations have much worse outcomes than others he addedWith inputs from ANICatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates