2023-07-05 02:37:16
A team of Japanese researchers is developing a drug that might allow people to grow new teeth. The drug, which would be the first of its kind in the world, will advance to clinical trials in July 2024. Katsu Takahashi’s team, principal investigator and director of the Department of Dentistry and Oral Surgery at the Kitano Hospital of the Medical Research Institute in the city of Osaka, estimates that the drug may be developed and ready to go on the market in 2030.
The drug has shown successful results in animal experiments, in which the drug caused the growth of “third generation” teeth, following adult milk and permanent teeth.
Every dentist’s dream
“The idea of growing new teeth is every dentist’s dream,” says the researcher quoted by the Japanese newspaper The Mainichi. “I’ve been working on this since I was a graduate student. I was sure I’d be able to make it happen.”
The drug might bring great relief to people suffering from anodontia, a congenital condition that causes fewer than the full number of teeth to grow and affects around 1% of the population.
Research prior to Takahashi’s studies had shown the existence of genes that, when deleted, caused genetically modified mice to grow fewer teeth. “The number of teeth varied thanks to the mutation of a single gene. If we make it the target of our research, there should be a way to change the number of teeth (that people have),” Takahashi describes his thoughts at the time.
The key protein
In his studies at Kyoto University, Takahashi focused on the investigation of a specific protein, USAG-1, which, synthesized by the gene, limits tooth growth. Takahashi concluded that blocking the action of that protein might allow more teeth to grow, and he decided to develop a neutralizing antibody drug that would do just that.
In 2021, the scientists published an article in which they described the results they had obtained with this medicine: they had made mice grow new teeth.
In the next phase, the researchers want to prepare the drug for human use. Once it is confirmed that it has no harmful effects on the human body, it will be used to treat children between the ages of 2 and 6 who present anodontia. “We hope to pave the way for the clinical use of the drug,” Takahashi told The Mainichi.
Edited by Isabella Escobedo
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