Science, Space and Technology News 2023
Northwestern University researchers created a synthetic melanin cream that protects and heals skin from sun and environmental damage by scavenging free radicals. It has potential applications in sun protection, wound healing, and as a defense against environmental toxins, with clinical trials on the horizon. Above is inflamed skin shows free radicals within the skin. ROS are “reactive oxygen species,” or free radicals.
“All those insults to the skin lead to free radicals which cause inflammation and break down the collagen,” Lu said. “That’s one of the reasons older skin looks very different from younger skin.” “The synthetic melanin is capable of scavenging more radicals per gram compared to human melanin,” said co-corresponding author Nathan Gianneschi, the Jacob and Rosaline Cohn Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science & Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Pharmacology at Northwestern. “It’s like super melanin. It’s biocompatible, degradable, nontoxic, and clear when rubbed onto the skin. In our studies, it acts as an efficient sponge, removing damaging factors and protecting the skin.
Illustration of a layer of the synthetic melanin sits on top of inflamed skin. Credit: Yu Chen, Northwestern University They waited a few hours, then applied their topical melanin cream to the injured skin. Within the first few days, the cream facilitated an immune response by initially helping the skin’s own radical scavenging enzymes to recover, then by halting the production of inflammatory proteins. This initiated a cascade of responses in which they observed greatly increased rates of healing. This included the preservation of healthy skin layers underneath.
Given their observation that melanin protects biologic tissue from high-energy radiation, they surmise that this could be an effective treatment for skin burns from radiation exposure.
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