Can AI cure hair loss? Chinese scientists propose new hair regeneration treatment

Nowadays, hair loss has become a very troublesome problem for contemporary young people. Due to the fast pace of daily work and life, high pressure, and irregular work and rest habits, hair loss, baldness, and high hairline have gradually become younger.

Regardless of age, hair loss is a very distressing thing for anyone, because a person's hairstyle is often related to their level of confidence.

Faced with the embarrassing situation of "baldness", some people choose to accept the reality of baldness, while others hope to regain a full head of black hair. Nowadays, artificial intelligence (AI) technology may be a good helper for people to get rid of hair loss. Recently, the team of Associate Professor Wang Lina from the School of Environmental and Safety Engineering of Qingdao University of Science and Technology, the team of Associate Professor Zhu Zhiling from the School of Materials Science and Engineering, and their collaborators, with the help of AI, designed a nanozyme with better performance and constructed a proof-of-concept The microneedle patch effectively regenerated hair in mice.

The relevant research paper is titled "Machine Learning Guided Discovery of Superoxide Dismutase Nanozymes for Androgenetic Alopecia" and has been published in the scientific journal Nano Letters.

Currently, most people with severe hair loss suffer from androgenic alopecia. It is a kind of hair loss caused by genetic factors and androgen, regardless of gender.

Testosterone is a common and important androgen, secreted by the male testicles or female ovaries. A small amount is secreted by the adrenal glands. Once it reaches the hair follicles, it is converted into dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is another An androgen, considered to be a major culprit in hair loss, can cause hair follicles to shrink and hair to become thinner.

For women, although estrogen in the body can suppress androgen, if the hormone balance in the body is broken, or estrogen decreases after middle age, hair loss will occur due to excess androgen.

(Source: Photo Network)

According to the paper, in this case, the hair follicles will be damaged by androgens, inflammation or excessive activity. damaged by oxygen (such as oxygen free radicals). When oxygen free radical levels are too high, they can overwhelm the body's antioxidant enzymes, which normally keep them in check.

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is one of the antioxidant enzymes. Scientists have also created a mimic based on this enzyme, namely nanozymes, but in removing oxygen free radicals Not very good in terms of performance.

So the research team sought to explore whether artificial intelligence could help them design a nanozyme that could better treat hair loss.

In this work, they selected transition metal thiophosphites as potential nanozyme candidates and tested the machine learning model using 91 different combinations of transition metals, phosphates, and sulfates.

Picture｜AI guided the discovery of SOD-like nanozymes. (Content source: this paper)

The prediction results show that MnPS3 will have the most powerful SOD-like capability.

They then synthesized MnPS3 nanosheets through chemical vapor transport of manganese, red phosphorus and sulfur powder. In preliminary tests on human skin fibroblasts, the nanosheets significantly reduced the level of reactive oxygen species, and No harm will be done.

Figure｜MnPS3 SOD-like activity. (Content source: this paper)

Based on these results, they prepared MnPS3 microneedle patches and used them to treat a mouse model affected by androgenic alopecia. Within 13 days, the mice regenerated thicker hair than mice treated with testosterone or minoxidil.

The researchers say their study both proposes a new nanozyme therapy for regenerating hair and demonstrates the utility of computer-based methods in designing future nanozyme therapies. potential in.

In addition, previous studies have confirmed that scientists can use genetic engineering to reprogram cells and directly transform ordinary cells (such as blood or fat cells) into hair stem cells to treat hair loss.

Although science and technology can help people grow "disappeared" hair again, perhaps the simplest and most effective treatment is inner self-regulation, actively adjusting the mentality, ensuring adequate sleep, and eating a nutritionally balanced diet. Quit smoking, comb your hair frequently, etc. Finally, I hope everyone can stay away from hair loss, baldness and high hairline.

Reference link:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03119

​​https://ha. qust.edu.cn/info/1013/1513.htm

https://cl.qust.edu.cn/info/1246/3534.htm

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