Chinese researchers have created a tool that can help 'cure' baldness, using micro needle patches, combined with artificial intelligence.
Many people suffer from male or female pattern alopecia, which is a common hair loss condition in both males and females, characterized by hair loss in well-defined areas, starting from the front of the hair above the temples.
Doctors say the new technology can help restore lost hair, as the patch works by neutralizing highly reactive chemicals that cause hair to thin and eventually disappear, according to the journal Nano Letters.
The patch helped regenerate the mice's hair within 13 days of using it. Mice used to test the new patch regained thicker strands of hair more effectively than other mice treated with testosterone or the chemical minoxidil, which is used in anti-baldness products.
The hair follicles of people with male or female pattern baldness (or androgenetic alopecia) can be damaged by androgens, infections, or too many reactive oxygen species, such as oxygen free radicals. And when levels of oxygen free radicals are too high, they can overwhelm the body's antioxidant enzymes that would normally keep them in check.
One such enzyme is called superoxide dismutase, and researchers have recently created nanoenzymes for it, called nanozymes.
The research team wanted to see if machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence, could help design better enzyme nanoparticles to treat hair loss.
They tested machine learning models with 91 different groups. Experts expected that manganese and phosphorus trisulfide (MnPS3) would be the most powerful tool for the success of the process.
While the tests were mainly done on mice, initial tests on human skin showed that it significantly reduced the amount of free radicals without causing any harm.
Lina Wang, study author from Qingdao University of Science and Technology, said: 'Hair loss is undesirable for many men and women, as this is often closely related to their self-esteem. We used artificial intelligence (AI) to predict compounds that could neutralize it. Reactive oxygen species causing scalp baldness.