It's too early to say when human trials of the compound might start, says Stephen T. Davis, leader of a team reporting the results in the Jan. 5 issue of the journal Science. Just imagine a second-grader about to go to school who loses all his hair.
Chemotherapy kills cancer cells undergoing rapid division.
When follicle cells stop dividing and die, the hair endings lodged in the scalp fall out. They first used advanced techniques to determine the exact shape of CDK2, then designed a molecule that would bind to the enzyme, so that hair follicle cells would continue to divide and grow. Robust' results After trying the compound in cell cultures, the researchers moved on to animal studies. They gave mice either a single cancer drug, etoposide, or a two-drug combination, rubbing the CDK2 inhibitor on part or all of their skin. Many animals retained their hair only where the compound was applied.