TechTonic Shifts is not only about Big Tech, and AI, although that might seem so sometimes, because there is so much happening in this department.
However sometimes Techtonic Shifts also happen in others fields as well.
And this time it is in the pharmaceutical | dentistry industry.
Before we start!
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I am always afraid to go to the dentist.
My teeth are not that bad, but with age and through my renowned clumsyness, come little annoyances. And sometimes the occasional tooth that breaks because of an injury.
So when I read about this revolutionary mileston in denstistry and genetics, I got really excited about the possibility of regrowing a few teeth.
This discovery has set the stage for transformative medical treatments, people !
Dr. Takahashi is the head of dentistry at a research hospital in Osaka. He has been working on this idea since his days as a graduate student. He set out to make this drug widely available by 2030.
Takahashi, started his career in the field of dentistry, and later specialized in molecular biology at Kyoto University in 1991. His journey then led him to the US, where he started to get interestged in genetic influences on tooth growth.
The medicine targets a condition called anodontia, where individuals are born with fewer than a full set of adult teeth. And this is affecting about 1% of the global population. This disease causes difficulties with basic functions like chewing, swallowing and speaking, impacting development from a young age.
Takahashi’s research in the US in the early 90s identified the genes whose deletion caused mice to grow fewer teeth.
And that discovery sparked his interest in regrowing teeth by targeting those genes.
And through his work in the 2000s, he discovered that mice lacking a specific gene developed more teeth, and that a protein called USAG-1 seemed to limit tooth growth.
And that lead to the development of an antibody-based medicine to neutralize USAG-1.
In 2018, they found out that this medicine could indeed induce new tooth growth in mice with congenitally low tooth numbers!
The drug is now being readied for human clinical trials in 2024.
They are targeting treatment of anodontia in children in the age group between 2-6.
You probably have heard that some animals like sharks can regrow teeth continuously. But humans typically have 2 sets, and that’s it. But recent research has shown the potential for a 3rd set of tooth “buds” in humans.
Through further experimentation, the research team discovered that when the medicine was applied to ferrets, an additional tooth was grown. These new teeth grew between the existing front teeth and were of similar shape, suggesting that the medicine could induce the growth of a third set of teeth.
At this moment, when a tooth becomes untreatable due to severe cavities or pyorrhea (that’s a disease leading to erosion of dental sockets), people often resort to dentures. But think of the possibility of growing a third set of teeth! That could really revolutionize this approach.
“In any case, we’re hoping to see a time when tooth-regrowth medicine is a third choice alongside dentures and implants,” Takahashi said, when he was talking about his ambitious vision for the future of dentistry in a video.
This treatment could provide an alternative to dentures and implants for tooth loss. And if Dr. Takahashi gets his wish fulfilled, his “tooth-regrowth medicine” will become a third standard treatment option.
Now this research is a very exciting development with the potential to revolutionize dentistry.
The ability to stimulate new tooth growth in humans would indeed be groundbreaking if of course proven safe and effective in clinical trials.
I myself do not suffer from this congenital disorder, but you bet your a**se that this novel treatment will be used to regrow ANY tooth (or molar?) in the near future.
And maybe there will not be a use for dentures anymore !
Well, that’s a wrap for today. Tomorrow, I’ll have a fresh episode of TechTonic Shifts for you. If you enjoy my writing and want to support my work, feel free to buy me a coffee ♨️
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