Do Individuals That Use Noradrenaline Blockers Retain Hair Colour?
Image credit: Adrian Fernández /Unsplash
Jamila Sep 08, 2020
Do individuals that use noradrenaline inhibitors retain hair color?
Zhang et al. found that stress stimulates the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) to release a rush of noradrenaline. The spike in noradrenaline causes a steep decline in the number of melanocyte stem cells, and this leads to the loss of hair colour.
In the same study, Zhang and colleagues found that a drug called guanethidine was able to prevent stress-induced hair greying in mice. Zhang suggests that the mice treated with guanethidine were able to maintain the melanocyte stem cell population and that's why they didn't lose their hair colour.
So what is guanethidine?
Guanethidine is a drug that blocks the release of noradrenaline from the nerve endings. It is an anti-hypertensive drug commonly used to treat high blood pressure as it can reduce the heart rate and can dilate the blood vessels.
Interestingly, noradrenaline inhibitors can be prescribed to individuals with anxiety, depression, and ADHD. Perhaps a study could be conducted to determine whether other noradrenaline inhibitors like atomoxetine, reboxetine, tandamine, etc. have the ability to retain hair colour. If so, this would be highly beneficial because most of these drugs are already licensed and would just need to be repurposed as a hair pigment therapy.
So do individuals that use noradrenaline inhibitors retain their hair colour?
[1]Zhang, Bing, et al. "Hyperactivation of sympathetic nerves drives depletion of melanocyte stem cells." Nature 577.7792 (2020): 676-681.
[2]Woosley, Raymond L., and Alan S. Nies. "Guanethidine." New England Journal of Medicine 295.19 (1976): 1053-1057.
[3]Dell’Osso, Bernardo, et al. "The noradrenergic action in antidepressant treatments: pharmacological and clinical aspects." CNS neuroscience & therapeutics 17.6 (2011): 723-732.
Jamila Sep 08, 2020