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Clinical, trichoscopic and biochemical assessments of beta-catenin tissue levels and Axin-2 gene expression were carried out at baseline and after 3\u00a0months.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Both therapeutic modalities were comparable. Potential efficacy was highlighted by significant improvement in the representative patch, the largest treated patch, to the control patch, the smallest untreated patch in both steroid and valproate groups (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.027, 0.003 respectively). Both beta-catenin levels and Axin-2 gene expression were reduced after treatment, pointing to the inhibitory effect of dominating uncontrolled inflammatory milieu. Baseline beta-catenin was found to significantly negatively correlate with improvement in the representative patch in patients with baseline level above 0.42\u00a0ng\/ml (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009= \u2212\u00a00.042).<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Both topical SV and steroids are of comparable modest efficacy. Thus, further evaluation of SV is due in combination with intralesional steroids and other anti-inflammatory treatment modalities, together with developing individualized approaches based on baseline beta-catenin level.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>NCT05017454, <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\" ext-link-type=\"uri\" xlink:href=\"https:\/\/clinicaltrials.gov\/ct2\/show\/NCT05017454\">https:\/\/clinicaltrials.gov\/ct2\/show\/NCT05017454<\/jats:ext-link>.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1007\/s00403-023-02785-1","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,3]],"date-time":"2024-01-03T08:02:22Z","timestamp":1704268942000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Topical sodium valproate-loaded nanospanlastics versus conventional topical steroid therapy in alopecia areata: a randomized controlled study"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"316","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9929-5413","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rania M.","family":"Mogawer","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marwa Mohamed","family":"Fawzy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ahmed","family":"Mourad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Heba","family":"Ahmed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Maha","family":"Nasr","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zeinab Ahmed","family":"Nour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Vanessa","family":"Hafez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,3]]},"reference":[{"issue":"2","key":"2785_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"215","DOI":"10.1007\/s10238-020-00673-w","volume":"21","author":"A Sterkens","year":"2021","unstructured":"Sterkens A, Lambert J, Bervoets A (2021) Alopecia areata: a review on diagnosis, immunological etiopathogenesis and treatment options. 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