Biohacking gray hair

[Mike Petersen]

Hi DIYbio community,

I was wondering if there could be any "system-biological" approach to "cure gray hair" and prevent the hair from losing its colour.
What is known about the genetic and the epigenetic mechanisms that cause the colour loss of our hair?
There are some interesting patterns, for example the fact that usually the hair around the temples starts to lose its colors first.
Which expression patterns can be linked to these observations?
And what would be promising ideas to interact with these mechanisms?

Thank you for your ideas

Mike

[Brian Degger]

Mike,

Interesting question.

With questions like that I generally start with a google scholar search.

https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=grey+hair+genetics

To give some hints on how grety hair happens, if it is actually inherited, and  what molecules might be involved.

Cheers,

Brian

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Brian Degger

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[leaking pen]

I believe it generally ties into the death of the cells responsible for pigment development, and has a pattern similar to death of follicles in male pattern.   There are some prevention methods to keep those cells alive longer, but I only know one method thats ever regenerated the dead cels, and it wasn't supposed to. 

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[Mike Petersen]

Hi Alexander,

I think you refer to the so called "melanocytes" which produce the pigments that give our hair the color.
Found an interesting abstract here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11602203

[Forrest Flanagan]

Related question, my fiance is naturally brunette and maintains bright unnaturally colored hair. The bleaching process is very high maintenance and damaging, and still results in brassy pheomelanin tones.

I would like to solicit ideas and methods of careful scalp application of rna interference targeting tyrosine 3-monooxegenase. This affects skin as well, unfortunately, so ideal methods spare discoloration of skin beyond the hairline. I'm also interested in ideas for more specific RNAi targets.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diybio/f4f8f6e5-bf06-4043-bae9-cc382d4d6615%40googlegroups.com.

[Mega [Andreas Stuermer]]

I'm no expert in this, but isn't it possible to dye the hair easily?
It's much more difficult/ impossible to combat hair loss. Now that would be something! Minoxidil is said to work, but I don't know if it has side effects.

[Forrest Flanagan]

Andreas, It's trivial to dye hair, but the color adjustment is limited by the existing color; it's like mixing extra pigment into existing paint.

Taking color out of hair is very challenging. Using high PH to deform the structure of the hair, expose the interior, and oxidise the natural pigments is standard practice. Black eumelanin is the least stable, though brown eumelanin is harder to attack, and red and yellow pheomelanins are always present and much more chemically stable. As the pheomelanins are typically more stable than the surrounding hair, the best result a dark haired person can expect from a hair bleaching is a bright brassy color, some hair damage, and minor chemical burns to the skin. 

Typically, the hair is allowed to recover for some amount of time with mildly acidic washes and deep conditioning. From there, blue is typically mixed into the hair to result in a more neutral grey, then the hair is dyed the desired color on top of that.

The process takes a significant amount of time, can fail catastrophically, doesn't work for all hair and skin types, and needs regular touching up when the roots grow in.

On Tue, Mar 10, 2015 at 5:03 PM, Mega [Andreas Stuermer] <masters...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm no expert in this, but isn't it possible to dye the hair easily?
It's much more difficult/ impossible to combat hair loss. Now that would be something! Minoxidil is said to work, but I don't know if it has side effects.

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[Derek]

Check out pseudocatalase. It's a formulation for vitiligo treatment that bears investigation...

[Mike Petersen]

Thank you everybody for your input :) It remains an exciting question :)

[Andalib Samandari]

Hey Alexander!

Also, Mike's right about the melanocytes, but theoretically we could control how late the melanocytes die off through genetic engineering (so they produce the colored melanin longer). This is supported by the fact that twins almost always have similar hair greying patterns, suggesting a link to genetics.

[Katherine Gordon]

Hi  Andalib Samandari,

I would enjoy learning more about your comment you added to a a fellow DIY bio concerning the death of hair folliciles:

....."but I only know one method thats ever regenerated the dead cels, and it wasn't supposed to."  Really? Do tell!

Kate 

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[leaking pen]

Experimental treatment for Lupus, was a genetic therapy.  aftermath included his grey hair turning black again and several titanium implants becoming absorbed by his body, leading to heavy metal issues. 

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[Yuriy]

You geniuses do know that some people just never go grey. Right?

[Gordana Ostojic]

Maybe using CRISPR to add the melatonin production to other cells on the scalp? Preferably some follicle specific cells so we don't color the skin. When we are at that CRISPR as an UV tanning replacement?  Yup, I know this is a bit too much now but in 30 years maybe not?

Did anyone see that Chinese scientists used CRISPR to modify human embryo? Genetic engineering is going to get hot area politically. Maybe some problems for biohackers are coming? 

[Gavin Scott]

On Thu, Apr 23, 2015 at 9:52 AM, Gordana Ostojic
<gordana....@gmail.com> wrote:
> Did anyone see that Chinese scientists used CRISPR to modify human embryo?

Seems like there's a long way to go before anyone will try this for real:

"We found that CRISPR/Cas9 could effectively cleave the endogenous
β-globin gene (HBB). However, the efficiency of homologous
recombination directed repair (HDR) of HBB was low and the edited
embryos were mosaic. Off-target cleavage was also apparent in these
3PN zygotes as revealed by the T7E1 assay and whole-exome sequencing.
Furthermore, the endogenous delta-globin gene (HBD), which is
homologous to HBB, competed with exogenous donor oligos to act as the
repair template, leading to untoward mutations. Our data also
indicated that repair of the HBBlocus in these embryos occurred
preferentially through the non-crossover HDR pathway. Taken together,
our work highlights the pressing need to further improve the fidelity
and specificity of the CRISPR/Cas9 platform, a prerequisite for any
clinical applications of CRSIPR/Cas9-mediated editing."

Their paper is open access at:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13238-015-0153-5

G.

[Gordana Ostojic]

Yes, I saw that they had lots of problems and it understandable since it is a tricky thing to do it on an embryo. Experiment-wise, even reproducing published procedures rarely works for the first time but I am interested if CSN rejected it because of scientific part or on ethical basis. I don't know if I should call it a problem or a milestone but my main point here is that political issues regarding genetic manipulation of humans will surface again and I am interested how is that going to be handled politically in US. Considering that Republicans will likely be next in charge, the backlash from their voters could produce strict genetic eng laws. 

[Brian Degger]

GE Healthcare/dharmacon has a webinar on crispr.
This points to the already interesting IP in crispr.
If an organism is edited with crispr without paying for a licence ... who owns the organism?

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[d wright]

Thank you. Great paper! Here is the NYTimes take on it. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/health/chinese-scientists-edit-genes-of-human-embryos-raising-concerns.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

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[Mac Davis]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10g-Pseudocatalase-PC-KUS-Recently-Reported-to-Treat-Vitiligo-Gray-Hair-/171056895170?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27d3c914c2

I am reminded of this ad for pseudocatalase I found recently. This isn't a cure but could point to a new route to cure.

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