New tanning drug darkens skin, could reduce incidence of skin-cancer – NEWS.com.au

A new skin-darkening drug spells good news for redheads. Picture: istock

MOST fair-skinned redheads will know the pain of achieving a golden glow without harmful exposure to UV radiation or walking out of a salon looking like an oompa loompa.

But there still might be hope yet researchers in the US have successfully darkened human skin cells grown in a petri-dish, providing an artificial tan that lasted for days.

The Boston team have now tested the treatment on human skin and hope that it will one day be used with traditional sunscreens, potentially decreasing the incidence of skin cancer.

Researchers hope the drug will one day replace sunbeds. Picture: ThinkstockSource:ThinkStock

The drug, which is applied as a cream to the skin, generated a deep, cancer-protecting tan in red-haired mice. It worked by stimulating cells to produce more UV-absorbing pigments.

When applied to the red-haired mice, they could become almost jet black in a day or two with a strong enough dose, researchers observed.

The colour fades away over time as normal skin cells slough off the surface, and skin tone gets back to normal within a week or so.

Like pale-skinned redheads, red-haired mice are also extremely susceptible to skin cancer through UV radiation.

Scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital developed the new skin treatment using a class of small molecules.

The treatment of human breast skin explants with topical drug that induces pigmentation. Picture: Nisma Mujahid and David E. FisherSource:Supplied

David E. Fisher, dermatology chief at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School, said it was difficult to get the drug to penetrate human skin as a result of having tougher skin than mice.

But ten years later, we have come up with a solution. Its a different class of compounds, that work by targeting a different enzyme that converges on the same pathway that leads to pigmentation, he said.

The research team is continuing to test the safety of small molecules in animals before carrying out toxicity studies in humans.

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New tanning drug darkens skin, could reduce incidence of skin-cancer - NEWS.com.au

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