The Ultimate Natural Sunscreen

Chemists, materials scientists and nanoengineers at UC San Diego have created what may be the ultimate natural sunscreen. They report the development of nanoparticles that mimic the behavior of natural melanosomes, melanin-producing cell structures that protect our skin, eyes and other tissues from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. Defects in melanin production in humans can cause diseases such as vitiligo and albinism that lack effective treatments. Vitiligo develops when the immune system wrongly attempts to clear normal melanocytes from the skin, effectively stopping the production of melanocytes.

Albinism is due to genetic defects that lead to either the absence or a chemical defect in tyrosinase. This disease lacks effective treatments. Scientists have discovered that extracting melanins from natural sources is a difficult and potentially more complex process than producing them synthetically. Scientists hypothesized that synthetic melanin-like nanoparticles would mimic naturally occurring melanosomes and be taken up by keratinocytes, the predominant cell type found in the epidermis. The UC San Diego scientists prepared melanin-like nanoparticles through the spontaneous oxidation of dopamine by developing biocompatible, synthetic analogues of naturally occurring melanosomes. Considering limitations in the treatment of melanin-defective related diseases and the biocompatibility of these synthetic melanin-like nanoparticles in terms of uptake and degradation, these systems have potential as artificial melanosomes for the development of novel therapies, possibly supplementing the biological functions of natural melanins.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170517090601.htm