Cyclopamine — A Fast Clearing Topical?
from Natalie

Hello Ed.  My name is Natalie.  I was wondering if you’ve heard anything about cyclopamine?   If you look it up there are several interesting articles about it being able to clear P very rapidly with long remission times.  There is even a U.S. patent on its use.

The only problem is I can’t seem to find any clinical trials being done so this product can be made available to the public.  I did see two new topicals for P — the same old steroids with different brand names.  I think that is shameful.  Other than the biologics, for which many of us are not candidates, there really has not been anything new for P in years.  Sorry just venting. -Natalie

*****

Ed’s Response:  No apologies accepted for venting, Natalie.  FlakeHQ is a “vent outlet.” 

I was NOT aware of cyclopamine, but did some web research, as you noted.  Here is the abstract of an article about an experiment using cyclopamine on psoriasis lesions. 

Here is a press release regarding the cyclopamine experiment.

The truly unique results obtained seem to me to be the rapid clearance of lesions using cyclopamine topically (lesions disappeared entirely in 3-4 days).  How many of us have dreamed about a medicine that would clear us quickly — for a special event, a trip to the Beach, a blind date...!

Like you, Natalie, I didn’t find anything about clinical trials.  I was surprised to find no references to cyclopamine at the NPF web site. 

WebMd.com contained a couple of articles on cyclopamine.  One reveals that the compound comes from the corn lily plant that grows in mountain meadows in the Western U.S.  (Hell for breakfast!  That’s where I grew up!) 

By searching the U.S. Government Patent and Trademark Office web site, I found 9 patents involving cyclopamine; patents for a variety of “claims” including controlling unwanted hair growth, treating diabetes, and cholesterol control.  I didn’t read all the documents, but those that I did skim did not mention psoriasis. 

What to make of it all?

I really don’t know.  I wish I could go home (Colorado), find some corn lilly weed in the mountains, run the plant through a blender until I got something smooth-on’able.  Then glomb it on myself.  If it worked, I wouldn’t give a damn about the patents (my feeling is weeds in Colorado belong to everybody).

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