Hairloss Prof an inspiration in her community

The dean of clinical medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Professor Ncoza Dlova, who along with her team of researchers, discovered a new gene that is a major cause of permanent hair loss among women of African descent this week.

Dlova has been at the forefront of improving the self-image of black women in SA for some time and was hailed this week after her collaboration with scientists in the US lead to the discovery of the cause of Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia (CCCA), one of the most common causes of scarring alopecia among African women.

In a study, titled Variant PAD13 in Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia, which was published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, patients with CCCA were recruited from Durban, South Africa, from 2013 through 2016 and in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from 2014 through 2017. It was found that the gene, peptidylarginine deiminase 3 (PAD13), which mediates posttranslational modification of proteins essential for proper hair shaft formation, was mutated in the majority of affected patients suggesting that the disease is genetically heterogeneous.

CCCA is defined as hair loss or spot balding that starts from the central (crown) part of the scalp and radiates outward in a circular pattern. CCCA causes the destruction of the hair follicles leading to scarring and permanent hair loss and had previously been thought to occur due to various hair treatment chemicals or straightening techniques.

The breakthrough will provide hope to many women who suffer from the ailment that perhaps one day there will be a cure.

This is not the first time that Dlova has been involved in important work relating to how people look. According to UKZN, Dlova has also been running workshops in partnership with the KZN Albinism Society of South Africa to increase awareness and understanding about the genetic skin and eye condition and to fight against discrimination and stigmatisation of people with albinism.

The University said: “As head of UKZN’s department of dermatology, she led research into the skin-lightening process known as bleaching. Along with documenting the dangers of this practice, particularly when carried out using illegal chemical products, her team has investigated the motivation behind it.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.