Kind of interesting. Has anyone else heard about QLT0074?

[Tricia]

I was trying to find out if there was any serious research being conducted into phototherapy for AGA. There is a Phase II study going on that is investigating the use of a cream (QLT0074) in conjunction with phototherapy. I hope it's a successful treatment. It sounds promising to me because they use a cream agent to activate the phototherapy....unlike the laserpointer technology of the LaserComb.

Here's a link to the company web site if you're interested:

http://www.qltinc.com/Qltinc/main/mainp ... PageID=146

[HairLossFight.com]

Hi my_username,

The URL you provided was down when I tried it, so I searched Google and found the following:


Selective Action of the Photosensitizer QLT0074 on Activated Human T Lymphocytes

Huijun Jiang, David J. Granville, John R. North, Anna M. Richter, and David W. C. Hunt

QLT Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Received February 8, 2002; accepted May 12, 2002

ABSTRACT

A new photosensitizer, presently designated QLT0074, may have the potential for the treatment of immune and nonimmune conditions with photodynamic therapy (PDT). The activity of QLT0074 was tested against human peripheral blood T cells and Jurkat T lymphoma cells. At low nanomolar concentrations of QLT0074 in combination with blue light, apoptosis was rapidly induced in Jurkat and blood T cells in vitro as indicated by the expression of the apoptosis-associated mitochondrial 7A6 marker and Annexin-V labeling. Further studies performed with Jurkat T cells showed that PDT-induced apoptosis with QLT0074 was associated with caspase-3 activation and the cleavage of the caspase substrate poly(adenosine diphosphateribose)polymerase. Flow cytometry studies revealed that blood T cells with high expression of the interleukin-2 receptor (CD25) took up greater amounts of QLT0074 and were eliminated to a greater extent with PDT than T cells with low levels of this activation marker. This selective action of PDT was confirmed by similar reductions in the percentage of T cells that expressed other activation-related markers, including very late activation antigen-4 (CD49d), human leukocyte antigen DR (HLA-DR), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (CD54) and Fas (CD95). For activated T cells treated with a specific dose of QLT0074 and light 24 h earlier, CD25 expression density was significantly less, whereas CD54, CD95 and HLA-DR levels were similar to those for control cells treated with light alone. This work shows that PDT with QLT0074 exerts selective, dose-related effects on T cells in vitro.


...So it works on the immune system. The company is based in Vancouver, BC, where I live. This particular abstract is from 2002 so it does appear to be somewhat old, but this is definitely interesting. Yet another thing for me to look into. I'll see if I can contact the Vancouver-based company to get the scoop on it.

Thanks for mentioning it here. I wasn't aware of this at all.

Regards,
Sam

[Tricia]

I actually contacted them (QLT Inc) about their study. They are testing it on men only. I asked them if they were going to try it out on women and I kind of got a snotty reply from them. It was the way they worded the reply that offended me. They said they wanted to treat MPB and maybe later they'd consider other forms of alopecia. It was like they didn't consider FPB to be of any consequence. I guess that's how it always is. They test these treatments on men first and women have to wait.

I found out about another company that has a treatment in late preclinical studies. The company is Curis and they have a drug to turn on the 'hedgehog' switch. Yes, hedgehog is the scientific name for it. They seem to think that turning this switch on would work on all hair follicles...even the real tiny ones. You can check them out at their web site .... http://www.curis.com

The Curis website is interesting because they tell you what stage of testing their drugs are in.

[HairLossFight.com]

I does suck that women's hair loss more often than not is side-stepped when talking about hair loss, but it's probably because of the fact that much more men suffer from excessive hair loss than women do, but that makes it all the more devastating for women that suffer from it. If it's any consolation, minox does appear to be more effective in women than men.

As for QLT, we'll have to wait and see what they come up with, if anything. Thanks for the lead on Curis. I have heard of the hedgehog gene. It generated a lot of buzz several years back and then it sort of disappeared from the radar. I'll check this out.

Sam