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TOPICS: Autoimmune Disorders Dermatology Hair MIT
By ANNE TRAFTON, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MAY 8, 2024

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Innovative research has led to the development of a microneedle patch that targets alopecia areata directly at the scalp. This Researchers suggest that their results could be
new approach avoids the broader side effects of systemic immune suppression. Successful tests on mice have demonstrated crucial in creating personalized vitamin D
significant hair regrowth and reduced inflammation, and there is potential to extend this technology to treat other
supplementation guidelines. A recent study by
autoimmune skin disorders.
researchers from Trinity College Dublin, published…
A new microneedle patch effectively treats alopecia areata by rebalancing the immune
response locally, promoting hair regrowth and reducing inflammation without systemic READ MORE
side effects.

Researchers at MIT, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School have developed a
potential new treatment for alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss and affects MAY 7, 2024

people of all ages, including children. Evolving Intelligence: How

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For most patients with this type of hair loss, there is no effective treatment. The team developed a Into Adulthood
microneedle patch that can be painlessly applied to the scalp and releases drugs that help to rebalance
the immune response at the site, halting the autoimmune attack.
MAY 7, 2024

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reduced inflammation at the treatment site, while avoiding systemic immune effects elsewhere in the
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body. This strategy could also be adapted to treat other autoimmune skin diseases such as vitiligo, Model
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Researchers developed a potential new treatment for alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss. The new Geological Precision
microneedle patch delivers immune-regulating molecules that can teach T cells not to attack hair follicles, helping hair
regrow. Pictured is an up-close view of the microneedles. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers

“This innovative approach marks a paradigm shift. Rather than suppressing the immune system, we’re
TAGS
now focusing on regulating it precisely at the site of antigen encounter to generate immune tolerance,”
says Natalie Artzi, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science,
an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and
an associate faculty member at the Wyss Institute of Harvard University. Artificial Intelligence Astronaut Astronomy
Astrophysics Biochemistry Biotechnology Black Hole
Artzi and Jamil R. Azzi, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, are the senior authors of the new study, which was published in the journal Brain Cancer Cell Biology Climate Change Cosmology
Advanced Materials. Nour Younis, a Brigham and Women’s postdoc, and Nuria Puigmal, a Brigham COVID-19 Disease DNA DOE Ecology Energy European
and Women’s postdoc and former MIT research affiliate, are the lead authors of the paper. Space Agency Evolution Exoplanet Genetics Hubble
Space Telescope Infectious Diseases International Space
The researchers are now working on launching a company to further develop the technology, led by
Station JPL Marine Biology Mars Materials Science Max
Puigmal, who was recently awarded a Harvard Business School Blavatnik Fellowship.
Planck Institute MIT Nanotechnology NASA NASA
Direct Delivery
Goddard Space Flight Center Neuroscience Nutrition
Alopecia areata, which affects more than 6 million Americans, occurs when the body’s own T cells Paleontology Particle Physics Planetary Science Planets
attack hair follicles, leading the hair to fall out. The only treatment available to most patients —
injections of immunosuppressant steroids into the scalp — is painful and patients often can’t tolerate it.
Popular Public Health Quantum Physics Virology

Yale University
Some patients with alopecia areata and other autoimmune skin diseases can also be treated with
immunosuppressant drugs that are given orally, but these drugs lead to widespread suppression of the
immune system, which can have adverse side effects.

“This approach silences the entire immune system, offering relief from inflammation symptoms but
leading to frequent recurrences. Moreover, it increases susceptibility to infections, cardiovascular
diseases, and cancer,” Artzi says.

The microneedle patches used in this study are made from hyaluronic acid crosslinked with polyethylene glycol (PEG), both
of which are biocompatible and commonly used in medical applications. The researchers designed the microneedle patches so
that after releasing their drug payload, they can also collect samples that could be used to monitor the progress of the
treatment. Pictured is another microscopic view of the microneedles. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers

···

A few years ago, at a working group meeting in Washington, Artzi happened to be seated next to Azzi
(the seating was alphabetical), an immunologist and transplant physican who was seeking new ways to
deliver drugs directly to the skin to treat skin-related diseases.

Their conversation led to a new collaboration, and the two labs joined forces to work on a microneedle
patch to deliver drugs to the skin. In 2021, they reported that such a patch can be used to prevent
rejection following skin transplant. In the new study, they began applying this approach to autoimmune
skin disorders.
 ···

“The skin is the only organ in our body that we can see and touch, and yet when it comes to drug
delivery to the skin, we revert to systemic administration. We saw great potential in utilizing the
microneedle patch to reprogram the immune system locally,” Azzi says.

The microneedle patches used in this study are made from hyaluronic acid crosslinked with
polyethylene glycol (PEG), both of which are biocompatible and commonly used in medical
applications. With this delivery method, drugs can pass through the tough outer layer of the epidermis,
which can’t be penetrated by creams applied to the skin.

“This polymer formulation allows us to create highly durable needles capable of effectively penetrating
the skin. Additionally, it gives us the flexibility to incorporate any desired drug,” Artzi says. For this
study, the researchers loaded the patches with a combination of the cytokines IL-2 and CCL-22.
Together, these immune molecules help to recruit regulatory T cells, which proliferate and help to tamp
down inflammation. These cells also help the immune system learn to recognize that hair follicles are
not foreign antigens, so that it will stop attacking them.

Hair Regrowth

The researchers found that mice treated with this patch every other day for three weeks had many more
regulatory T cells present at the site, along with a reduction in inflammation. Hair was able to regrow at
those sites, and this growth was maintained for several weeks after the treatment ended. In these mice,
there were no changes in the levels of regulatory T cells in the spleen or lymph nodes, suggesting that
the treatment affected only the site where the patch was applied.

In another set of experiments, the researchers grafted human skin onto mice with a humanized
immune system. In these mice, the microneedle treatment also induced proliferation of regulatory T
cells and a reduction in inflammation.

The researchers designed the microneedle patches so that after releasing their drug payload, they can
also collect samples that could be used to monitor the progress of the treatment. Hyaluronic acid causes
the needles to swell about tenfold after entering the skin, which allows them to absorb interstitial fluid
containing biomolecules and immune cells from the skin.

Following patch removal, researchers can analyze samples to measure levels of regulatory T cells and
inflammation markers. This could prove valuable for monitoring future patients who may undergo this
treatment.

The researchers now plan to further develop this approach for treating alopecia, and to expand into
other autoimmune skin diseases.

Reference: “Microneedle-mediated Delivery of Immunomodulators Restores Immune Privilege in Hair

Follicles and Reverses Immune-Mediated Alopecia” by Nour Younis, Núria Puigmal, Abdallah El Kurdi,
Andrew Badaoui, Dongliang Zhang, Claudia Morales, Anis Saad, Diane Cruz, Nadim Al Rahy, Andrea
Daccache, Triana Huerta, Christa Deban, Ahmad Halawi, John Choi, Pere Dosta, Christine Lian,
Natalie Artzi and Jamil R. Azzi, 18 April 2024, Advanced Materials.
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202312088

···

The research was funded by the Ignite Fund and Shark Tank Fund awards from the Department of
Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

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2 COMMENTS ON "MICRONEEDLE MAGIC: NEW ALOPECIA TREATMENT CAN REVERSE HAIR LOSS"

faith benditc | May 9, 2024 at 3:49 am | Reply

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Charles G. Shaver | May 9, 2024 at 8:13 am | Reply

Now eighty and bald headed, with a family history of hair loss, I began losing my hair
in my late twenties. Coincidental to receiving liver injections and proprietary nutritional
supplements from my then wife’s maternity doctor for my chronic fatigue, within about two
months my hair quit falling out. Unfortunately, having changed jobs prior to the pregnancy and
lacking medical insurance to cover the birth of our second child, I quit the doctor’s fatigue
treatments to better afford my wife’s medical care. About a month after quitting those treatments I
came down with the worst case of ‘chills’ (no fever as recalled) I ever had and three days later my
hair resumed falling out.

Notably ill again in early 1981, in late 1981 I learned I was/am mildly allergic to almost everything
I regularly eat and drink. Since, everything factored-in, I’m convinced that most cases of so-called
 “male pattern baldness” are food allergy/acidic blood related. While the new “patch” may help
some re-grow their hair it may also instill a false sense of wellness within a population of millions
who still need to learn of their own nearly subclinical non-IgE-mediated food and food additive
allergies (e.g., “The Pulse Test,” Arthur F. Coca, MD, 1956; no financial incentive for me) to
improve and extend their natural lives. Hair loss is actually one of the most obvious but least
dangerous symptoms of my kind of allergies. A new affordable, convenient and reliable laboratory
test for my kind of allergies would be of much greater value.

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