Fox243

Just as an update, I lost my job a few days ago so I will not be doing anything Verteporfin related for the next few weeks at least. Just wanted to give the update for transparency.

Agreed, I think he should be on list. Quick question, did he ask to be recommended on the forum?

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Have you seen much help with the medications or nothing much?

My main concern is people may not realize it’s been moved and therefore not be able to find the thread. Perhaps we put out an announcement it’s been moved?

Thanks – anyways, I don’t care about the credit which is why I stay anon. I just hope that more of the community can help take actionable steps so we can get our hair back. People like Melvin and me only have so much time. I think the result is interesting, but not something I give much credibility to just because there’s too many uncontrolled variables.

I think 0.4 is close to the optimal dose. Yes, as shown in the mice and pig study, higher doses could cause detrimental effects. It's likely not because we are inhibiting YAP too much, rather verteporfin itself has some negative off-target effects that likely outweigh the YAP inhibition at higher doses. Ideally, if we had a purer YAP inhibitor, we'd get better results.

I think "most of us Cant comprehend a scientific paper. best we can do is read the abstract and the results sections or at least me." is an excuse tbh. I'm the one who worked out the doses to try out from extrapolating from mice studies, despite having taken 0 courses in biology. It all depends on one's self drive to learn and solve your own problems, rather than relying on someone else. These doctors are already so busy with their day practice and even coordinating the whole verteporfin trial that they may not be able to become experts in the science, but that's where we can help. Regarding the credible and reliable vert supply, that is something the community can be doing. I, for example, emailed around 150 pharmacies in the US and am in talks of getting one to be reliable, but it may fail. I don't see why other can't do what I am doing.

I will contact him at the 6 month mark and share what I am able.

If you don’t think mass emailing doctors will be useful, at least volunteer to help with coming up with new ideas and such to increase regeneration. Read through papers to help theorize optimal doses, injection techniques, etc. There’s so many variables to tinker with to learn about instead of complaining. And there is data – very detailed FUE data in fact with biopsy counts and good quality pictures.

Rather than complain, can you instead do productive things like mass emailing other docs to try out verteporfin? the only person with a right to complain is arcturus who put in 14.5k or the few members of the community who have done dozens of hours of research like melvin or me who wrote the 20 page vert doc.

Yes, both doctors have just received their trichoscan devices, and are waiting till mid Jan before they can talk to the company about how to use it.

Personally, after seeing his 3 month results, I was a bit disappointed, especially compared to Dr. Barghouthi's 3 month results, so I'm not expecting much. Not sure what went wrong, be it that it was an FUT or the procedure in some other way, but I'm more excited for Dr. Barghouthi's upcoming trial.

It could also be not promising and prevent people from trying it out.

I’ll ask him at the 6 month mark so in two weeks.

It would be interesting to examine but ultimately, the pig study only uses it once and we first need to prove that verteporfin works well for a one time use before thinking about how to optimize it.

Because it’s his trial, I would rather wait till he feels comfortable sharing whatever he wants publicly. I have been getting lots of DMs about vert and it’s been a bit overwhelming so I am going to be off the site for a few weeks. I will return after the holidays.

Bro you don’t need to pay money to read these articles. All students get these articles for free. Better for you to donate this money to trials.

kinda... I have it for pigs, which may not apply for humans. Here it is: All animal work was conducted in accordance with APLAC protocol 33742. Full-thickness excisional wounds (2cm x 5cm) were produced on the dorsal skin of 12-week-old red Duroc pigs. Wounds were excised in an elongated hexagon shape such that tension was comparable across their length. PBS (control; 4-6 wounds/pig) and verteporfin (2-8 mg/mL in PBS; 4-6 wounds/pig) were then injected into wounds. Nine injections (100 μL each) were performed per wound: three into the exposed dermis of the left side of the wound; three into the right side of the wound; and three into the base of the wound. Control and treatment wound sites were randomly assigned along the medial/lateral and cranial/caudal aspects to avoid confounding anatomic factors. Given the observed effect size in our first experimental pig and a power analysis, nine wounds per treatment group was deemed sufficient to adequately assess statistical significance. Wounds were primarily repaired with 3-0 Vicryl deep dermal sutures, 3-0 Monocryl running subcuticular sutures, and surgical tape (Steri-Strips). Adhesive wound dressings (Primapore) were applied and changed every 2-3 days for two weeks, then weekly until wounds were fully healed. Wounds were photographed weekly for later scoring on scar visual analog scale (VAS). Cutometer measurements were taken to measure stiffness of normal skin and scars at 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16-weeks post-wounding. Animals were euthanized at 16 weeks post-wounding, and wound tissue divided for analyses as described below. I also have dr. barghouthi's and dr. bloxham's protocols, but I'm not sure if they would like it shared on the web, so if anybody has a surgeon who has actually shown interest, I can DM it to them. Just let me know.

I had but forgot to add it to the literature in the vert doc. Just added now.

Yes, I think there will be enough evidence for standard FUE with plain verteporfin, which is why I want to test combining it with other compounds.

The 15k is being used for the trial. Trials and transplants are expensive. You don’t need a cost breakdown because 15k is so reasonable – at a high level imagine a graft is $5, Verteporfin itself costs $1k, and paying for a patients and doctors time for several follow up visits can easily reach 15k. The point to fund an additional trial is so we see if Verteporfin works alone in the first one and concurrently test out other safe drugs. Cancer drugs makes it sound worse than it is when these drugs are completely benign if you do research, as I have spending hours studying these. Why stifle the scientific progress being made if now is a time for innovation?

Just thinking out loud here: I want to fund one more HT trial with dr barghouthi in which we test two extremely promising FDA compounds that should work in conjunction with veteporfin: imiquimod and vemurafenib, both of which have been fda approved for decades as well. I was thinking either we do a normal fundraiser for around $10k, or if 5 people are willing to each donate $2k, I can talk to Dr. Barghouthi and we can guarantee a priority HT with verteporfin whenever you want at the normal HT rate. If you truly believe in verteporfin, I think this could be a good deal as doctors who have practice with verteporfin will have years long wait lists and the price will significantly increase. Thoughts? Would anybody be willing to deposit 2k to Dr. Barghouthi for what I proposed -- if so, comment below.

Couple reasons: 1) hairdao is a business and hairdao unfortunately cannot make much money for Verteporfin. Because I am a core member, I was able to persuade the others it would be good for PR 2) some people don’t want to get a transplant done and hence topical thyroid could be better