Photo: Peakstock / Shutterstock
A 2021 study published in Scientific Reports showed how drugs targeting the protein made by the USAG-1 gene could affect the number of teeth that grow in animals, the team has turned its attention to humans. They have announced a clinical trial of the drug in 2024, which they hope to have ready for general use in 2030.
“The idea of growing new teeth is every dentist’s dream. I’ve been working on this since I was a graduate student. I was confident that I could do it,” Mainichi Katsu Takahashi, principal investigator and head of the department of dentistry and oral surgery at Osaka Kitano Hospital Medical Research Institute, told Popular Mechanics.
“We hope to see a time when tooth growth drugs are a third option along with dentures and implants.”
Takahashi has spent years researching the growth potential of teeth, focusing on the role of genes in tooth growth. “The number of teeth varied due to a single gene mutation,” she said. “If we make that the goal of our research, there should be a way to change the number of teeth people have.“.
The researchers found that the USAG-1 protein could limit tooth growth in mice, so making sure the protein didn’t form could potentially invite teeth to grow. The team developed a drug to block the protein and successfully allowed the mice to grow new teeth.
A breakthrough in dental health
A 2023 article published in Regenerative Therapy denounces the lack of available treatments for tooth regrowth, but highlights how treatment with anti-USAG-1 antibodies in mice could offer “a breakthrough in the treatment of dental abnormalities in humans.”
With data revealing that approximately 1% of humans suffer from anodontia, a genetic condition that does not allow a full set of teeth to grow, there is hope that teeth will regrow in humans beyond mouse-focused trials.
And that hope, says Takahashi, should be further encouraged by the fact that We already have the starting point preloaded. He said his previous research shows that humans already have the beginnings of a third set of teeth embedded in their mouths.
This is most visibly exhibited by the 1 percent of humans with hyperdontia, the growth of more than one complete set of teeth. And Takahashi believes that activating that third set of buds with the right genetic manipulation could promote new tooth growth. If all goes well in the next clinical trial, the world could have more teeth by 2030.
Keep reading:• Mental health: what foods you can eat to improve it
• How to deal with post-traumatic stress, according to a psychiatrist
• Healthy heart: 3 healthy breakfasts to improve cholesterol