Japanese researchers test pioneering drug to regrow teeth
TOKYO—People with missing teeth may be able to grow new ones, say Japanese dentists testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants.
Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth.
But hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, according to Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka.
His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental medicine to adult test subjects that they say has the potential to jumpstart the growth of these concealed teeth.
It’s a technology “completely new” to the world, Takahashi told AFP.
Prosthetic treatments used for teeth lost to decay, disease or injury are often seen as costly and invasive.
So “restoring natural teeth definitely has its advantages,” said Takahashi, the project’s lead researcher.
Tests on mice and ferrets suggest that blocking a protein called USAG-1 can awaken the third set, and the researchers have published lab photographs of regrown animal teeth.
Effective in mice
In a study published last year, the team said their “antibody treatment in mice is effective for tooth regeneration and can be a breakthrough in treating tooth anomalies in humans.”
The hereditary condition is said to affect around 0.1 percent of people, who can have severe trouble chewing, and in Japan often spend most of their adolescence wearing a face mask to hide the wide gaps in their mouth, Takahashi said.
“This drug could be a game-changer for them,” he added.
The drug is therefore aimed primarily at children, and the researchers want to make it available as early as 2030.
Angray Kang, a dentistry professor at Queen Mary University of London, said Takahashi’s work is “exciting and worth pursuing.”
“The race to regenerate human teeth is not a short sprint, but by analogy a set of back-to-back consecutive ultramarathons,” he said.
Chengfei Zhang, a clinical professor in endodontics at University of Hong Kong, said Takahashi’s method is “innovative and holds potential.”
“The assertion that humans possess latent tooth buds capable of producing a third set of teeth is both revolutionary and controversial,” he told AFP.
He also cautioned that “outcomes observed in animals do not always directly translate to humans.”
A confident Takahashi argues that the location of a new tooth in a mouth can be controlled, if not pinpointed, by the drug injection site.
And if it grows in the wrong place, it can be moved through orthodontics or transplantation, he said.
While tooth regeneration is not the express goal of the trial this time around, there is a slim chance that it could happen to subjects anyway, Takahashi said.
