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A 2021 study conducted in Japan showed how gene targeting can regrow teeth in animals. Now, the team has moved on to a human clinical trial.
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By targeting the USAG-1 gene, researchers believe they can help people who do not have a full set of teeth to regrow teeth.
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The team says that humans have a third set of teeth available in the form of buds, ready to grow as needed.
A piece of what makes Sharks Also interesting is its ability to regrow teeth. Although a group of Japanese researchers does not claim that we should try to be more like sharks, they would like us to share the same ability one day.
Follow 2021 Stady (Published in Scientific reports) that showed how the drug targets the protein made by USAG-1 The gene It can affect the number of teeth that develop in animals, and the team has turned its attention to humans. They have announced 2024 Clinical trial of the drug, which they hope to be ready for general use in 2030.
“The idea of growth is new teeth It is every dentist’s dream. I’ve been working on this since I was a graduate student. “I was confident that I would be able to achieve this,” Katsuo Takahashi, principal investigator and head of the Department of Dentistry and Oral Surgery at the Kitano Hospital Medical Research Institute in Osaka, said. Tell Mainichi. “We hope to see a time when dental regrowth medicine is a third option alongside dentures and dental implants.”
Takahashi spent years researching the possibility of tooth regrowth, focusing on the role of genes in tooth development. “The number of teeth varies by leap From just one gene He said. “If we make that the goal of our research, there must be a way to change the number of teeth (people have).”
The researchers found that the USAG-1 protein could limit tooth development in mice, thus ensuring the presence of the protein He didn’t do that The shape likely calls for teeth to grow. The team has developed a drug to prevent proteinIt succeeded in allowing mice to grow new teeth.
A 2023 paper Published in Regenerative therapy He criticizes the lack of treatments available to regrow teeth, but highlights how anti-USAG-1 antibody treatment in mice could provide a “breakthrough in dental treatment.” Anomalies In humans.”
With about 1% of the population suffering from tooth loss, a genetic condition that does not allow a full set of teeth to grow, there is hope for tooth regrowth in Humans Beyond just experiments centered around mice.
This hope, Takahashi claims, should be further strengthened by the fact that we have already arrived pre-loaded with the starting point. for him He said His previous research shows that humans have the beginning of a third set of teeth already integrated into our bodies Mouths. This is clearly evident in the 1% of humans who suffer from hyperdontia, that is, the growth of more than a complete set of teeth. Takahashi believes that activating the third set of buds with the right genetic manipulation could promote tooth regrowth.
If things go well in the future Clinical trialThe world may have more teeth by 2030.
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