An Open Label Clinical Trial of the JAK Inhibitor Tofacitinib for Alopecia Areata
May 2017
in “
Journal of Investigative Dermatology
”
TLDR Tofacitinib helped over half of the patients with severe hair loss regrow at least 50% of their hair.
In a 2017 open-label clinical trial, the JAK inhibitor tofacitinib was tested on 12 patients with moderate to severe alopecia areata (AA), with 11 completing the study. The initial dosage of 5mg twice daily was increased to 10mg when responses were limited. The trial concluded that 7 out of the 12 patients experienced at least 50% hair regrowth, translating to a 60% response rate for the primary outcome. RNA sequencing from scalp biopsies indicated that molecular responses could be detected as early as 4 weeks into treatment, and gene expression profiles could predict which patients would not respond to the treatment before it commenced. These results suggest that tofacitinib could be an effective treatment for AA and highlight the need for larger clinical trials.
