Topical Metformin and topical Rapamycin could be obtained too. Metformin has been around for ages and has a good safety record. It's currently being studied for longevity.
I too have been reading up on autophagy recently and have begun doing the 16:8 intermittent fasting which supposedly promotes it. How does autophagy work for skin? Does fasting induce it, or do we need a cream? The word itself seems to be just a catch all.
CHRONIC metformin treatment will ___cause___ hair loss according to many who take the drug orally for Type2 diabetes. Not all...but many.
Acute metformin treatment will cause autophagy but chronic usage will damage the mitochondria resulting in the hair loss.
Some points:
1) some molecules only cause autophagy in vitro when bathed in the substance for 24 hours and have zero effect in vivo. Trehalose would be
an example of that.
2) autophagy effectiveness is hindered by lipofuscin. These studies tho are on post-mitotic cells and I dont know if that applies to mitotic cells.
My guess is that lipofuscin does still build up over time even in mitotic cells otherwise there wouldn't such a thing called "liver spots" in skin cells.
If lipofuscin is a problem then cylclodextrin would rapidly dissolve it which it is hard to find chemicals that do without toxicity.
https://www.fightaging.org/archives...ble-treatment-for-the-build-up-of-lipofuscin/
3) stacking almost always across the board results in better response. Cocktails are no secret to the medical community...
Pubmed paper recommends hitting various pathways.
4) alpha KG supplementation anecdotes seem to suggest it causes hair loss. Altho I don't know why for sure, the hair follicles dont like one form of butyrate and this might include alpha KG also.
Ketones that we have in our metabolism are: acetone and butyrate.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2045676
Most of the anecdotes I remember weren't used for hair growth in Androgenetic Alopecia but for weight loss. If we are somehow starving the hair follicle of glucose(say by reduced microcirculation) then it would be advantageous to use alpha KG(read above study) and might be an interesting topical
re:microcirculation and insulin resistance(
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128000939000235)
5) I'm not sure we really want "always on" autophagy either. Normally levels of autophagic indicators are low. Autophagy is HIGH in many diseases.
6) read longecity alot... check out Turnbuckle's comments on various things. He suggests that autophagy is rather stressful to a cell.
Check out his thread:
https://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/94224-manipulating-mitochondrial-dynamics/