脱发基因揭秘 聪明不再绝顶

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Gene discovery may lead to new baldness drugs

LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers have identified a gene linked to hair loss that could lead to new drugs to treat baldness.

The gene is responsible for a rare hereditary form of hair loss known as Hypotrichosis simplex, a condition affecting 1 in 200,000 people, in which people begin going bald in childhood, the researchers reported in the journal Nature Genetics.

\"There is a very good chance of developing a therapy to treat hair loss based on this finding,\" the study's leader Regina Betz, a researcher at the Institute of Human Genetics, said in a telephone interview on Monday.

Currently, Merck and Co's Propecia and Pfizer Inc's Rogaine are drugs sold to stop baldness, but they help people maintain their hair rather than grow new follicles.

Using DNA samples from 11 members of a Saudi Arabian family that had inherited the rare condition, the researchers found that a mutation in the P2Y5 gene prevented proteins called growth receptors on hair follicle cells from forming properly.

This meant a substance needed to stimulate hair growth could not attach to the defective receptors and may help explain hair loss, the researchers said. The finding could lead to drugs that target these proteins to boost hair growth, they added.

\"We can now search selectively for related substances that may be used in therapies for hair loss,\" Ivon von Kugelgen, a researcher who worked on the study at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology in Bonn, said in a statement.

\"The exciting possibility here is that such medicines will be able to benefit patients suffering from very different types of hair loss.\"

\"伦敦（路透社）——研究人员已经确定有一个基因与脱发密切相关，该基因的发现也许可以为秃顶的治疗提供一种新药。

研究人员在《自然—遗传学》期刊上发表的文章中指出，这种基因是单纯性头发稀毛症发病的原因所在，该疾病是一种罕见的遗传性脱发，患有此病的患者从儿童时代开始就会出现脱发，发病率为二十万分之一。

“该基因的发现对于治疗脱发来说是一个很好的机会，基于这一发现也许可以发展出一个新疗法，”里贾纳.贝茨周一在接受电话采访时如是说（该位学者是人类遗传学说研究所的研究员，同时也是这个研究的领导者）。


目前，默克公司的propecia和辉瑞制药公司的rogaine都作为治疗脱发的药物在销售，但它们帮助人们不脱发，而不是长出新的毛囊。

来自一个沙特阿拉伯家族的11个患者都遗传了这个罕见的疾病，研究人员研究后发现，他们的DNA样本在p2y5基因上出现了基因突变，正是这种突变阻止了毛囊细胞中的生长受体蛋白质的形成。

这意味着需要一种物质来刺激带有缺陷受体，使得毛发生长起来，这有助于解释脱发，研究人员说。这一发现给了我们一个研究方向，就是找到一些能够对形成这些蛋白质以刺激毛发生长有帮助的药物，他们补充说道。

\"我们现在可以有选择性地搜索相关物质，可用于治疗脱发， \" Ivon von Kugelgen，这位在波恩药理、毒理学研究所工作的研究员在一份声明说。

\"令人兴奋的是，这种药物可能让各种不同类型的脱发患者受惠\" 。