On September 1st, 2020, Arena Pharmaceuticals announced that the first subject has been dosed in Phase 2 of their trial evaluating a drug called Etrasimod, a Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) Receptor Modulator for the treatment of moderate-to-severe Alopecia Areata. This clinical trial is a randomized, placebo-controlled trial, meaning that 36 subjects will be chosen randomly to receive either a daily dose of 2 mg of Etrasimod or a placebo for 24 weeks. Etrasimod is a drug discovered by Arena Pharmaceuticals which provides local and systemic (across the entire body) effects on specific immune cell types and has the potential to treat a variety of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.
Preclinical and scientific validation studies have found that Etrasimod has the potential to reduce circulating CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocytes (types of cells involved in the immune response). In the case of Alopecia Areata, this could reduce the amount of immune cells available to attack the hair follicles, potentially circumventing hair loss. Though further investigation is needed, this is a promising finding.
With no approved treatments to date, we are hopeful that the results of this clinical trial are successful and Etrasimod proves to be successful in treating Alopecia Areata!
