It's a little known disease that has a massive impact on its victims. And it's had no known cure until now.

"Alopecia universalis" or alopecia areata universalis is an autoimmune disease that causes a man to lose all of his body hair, including his eyebrows and eyelashes.

It afflicts one in 200,000 men worldwide and is the most severe form of alopecia areata, or a milder medical condition in which hair is lost from some or all areas of the body, but usually from the scalp. The disease also affects women.

Like Us on Facebook

There is no known cure or standard treatment for Alopecia universalis.

Researchers at the at Yale University School of Medicine, however, reported that a unique treatment involving the use of an arthritis drug helped a 25 year-old man regrow a full head of hair after Alopecia universalis left him hairless.

"The results are exactly what we hoped for," said Dr. Brett King, assistant professor of dermatology at Yale University School of Medicine.

"This is a huge step forward in the treatment of patients with this condition. While it's one case, we anticipated the successful treatment of this man based on our current understanding of the disease and the drug. We believe the same results will be duplicated in other patients, and we plan to try."

The patient in the study was afflicted with both Alopecia universalis and plaque psoriasis, a disease in which patches of the skin are affected by scaly red bumps.

Dr. King and his team agreed that both diseases could be treated with a rheumatoid arthritis drug called "Tofacitinib citrate."

Tofacitinib, which is sold as Xeljanz and Jakvinus, is currently approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in the U.S. and Russia. It is being studied for treatment of psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease,other immunological diseases and for the prevention of organ transplant rejection.

"There are no good options for long-term treatment of alopecia universalis," Dr. King said. "The best available science suggested this might work, and it has."

He said Tofacitinib citrate appears to regrow hair by turning off the immune system's attack response on hair follicles that is activated by the disease.

Researchers reported that the man in the study had a full regrowth of hair after eight months. They said the patient has reported feeling no side effects. They have also seen no no lab test abnormalities.

Dr. King hopes to start clinical trials of the arthritis drug in cream form for a less extreme form of alopecia.

Alopecia universalis is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait. It is caused by a mutation in a gene dubbed HR in chromosome band 8p21.2, or the human version of the gene that is responsible for hairlessness in mice.

Tagsauto immune disease, baldness, alopecia universalis, cure, treatment, Tofacitinib, medicine