New investigational drugs for androgenetic alopecia.

Introduction: Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is the most common form of hair loss, however current treatment options are limited and moderately effective. In the past few years, there has been an increased interest in deciphering the molecular mechanisms responsible for this disorder, which has opened the possibility of novel treatments that promise to not only stimulate hair growth, but also to induce formation of new hair follicles.

Areas Covered: The future holds more effective topical treatments with less systemic side effects (such as topical 5-alfa-reductase inhibitors), prostaglandin analogs and antagonists, medications which act through the Wnt signaling pathway, stem cells for hair regeneration, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and more effective ways of transplanting hair. A comprehensive search was made using PubMed, GoogleScholar and Clinicaltrial.gov using different combination of key words, which included AGA treatment, new treatments for AGA, Wnt pathway, prostaglandins, PRP and stem cells for hair regrowth.

Expert Opinion: In the near future, treatments with topical 5-alfa-reductase inhibitors and prostaglandin agonists or antagonists are expected. More evidence is needed to verify the efficacy of PRP. Although hair follicle bioengineering and multiplication is a fascinating and promising field, it is still a long way from being available to clinicians.