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May 2, 2007: What worth are the many
anti-dandruff shampoos in the market?
Anti-dandruff capabilities apart, the
anti-dandruff shampoos are slowly revealing
another positive aspect.
According to researchers, the anti-dandruff
shampoos can also calm overexcited nerve cells
inside the user’s head. This in turn has been
found to be a potential treatment for seizures.
It is medially known that epilepsy and other
seizure disorders result when nerves excessively
or inappropriately fire in the brain. Protein
defects that prevent potassium from exiting nerve
cells and calming them leading to such ailment . A
new way of testing drug like molecules to find any
that could turn the potassium switch on or off led
to findings that molecules that accelerated the
recovery could be identified. This brought the
researchers to the doorstep of one chemical that
proved quite effective in improving channel
recovery. Zinc Pyrithione or ZnPy, the active
ingredient in many dandruff shampoos, was zeroed
in on it was found that the chemical has a shape
that allows it to fit into the gate region of the
channel protein and allow more potassium flow.
Defective channels that contain the same mutations
known in humans to cause mild epilepsy-like
seizures in infants were then tested. Bathing
cells with small amounts of ZnPy caused the mutant
potassium channels to let three times as much
potassium flow through, raising the possibility of
restoring normal nerve cell activity, said a
report.
BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT
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