Scientists have successfully tested a novel way to make skin produce melanin (the stuff of tans) and it doesn't involve the sun or a tanning bed.
They've developed a drug that in lab tests produced a tan on human skin samples that lasted for days — and mimicked exactly what the sun's rays produce — hopefully without the risk of cancer. The idea is that more melanin in the skin lowers risk of skin cancer. The most important part of the equation is that the drug used doesn't damage DNA — the reason the sun's rays are so harmful.
Scientists from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, both in Boston, Mass., found that by inhibiting enzyme activity they could induce pigmentation in the skin of mice and in human lab skin.
They based their current work on a 2006 study in which a melanin-inducing molecule was used effectively on test mice, but failed in human trials, most likely, researchers said, due to the molecules' inability to penetrate human skin. The new pathway is with much smaller molecule drugs, capable of passing through human skin. The class of drugs is called SIK inhibitors. These drugs work on a protein in the melanin production cycle.
“We are excited about the possibility of inducing dark pigment production in human skin without a need for either systemic exposure to a drug or UV exposure to the skin,” said Dr. David E. Fisher, director of the Massachusetts General's Cutaneous Biology Research Center, and the lead investigator for both studies.
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.
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