Discovering Hair Loss Treatments That Increase The Wnt/Beta-Catenin Signaling Pathway By High-Throughput Screening

This study aimed to discover new drug candidates that activate Wnt/β-catenin signaling to treat hair loss by screening 2,600 natural products and 2,570 FDA-approved drugs. Using HEK293 cells for high-throughput screening, nine drugs were identified, including antiviral, anticancer, and GSK-3b inhibitors. Among these, Aminoacridine and Abemaciclib showed significant hair growth effects in animal experiments. Specifically, the combination of Aminoacridine with Minoxidil resulted in a 58% hair regrowth area at four weeks, compared to 41% for Minoxidil alone. These findings suggest that Aminoacridine, Abemaciclib, and their combination with Minoxidil are promising treatments for hair loss through Wnt/β-catenin pathway activation.