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posted by n1 on Monday June 19 2017, @02:40AM   Printer-friendly
from the bronze-gods dept.

Is your skin naturally toned from a UV tanning bed, or are you on salt-inducible kinase inhibitors?

A new compound promises to give human skin a suntan without the sun. The compound hasn't yet been tested in clinical trials—just in mice and on patches of human skin leftover from surgeries. But doctors are hopeful it could one day combat skin cancer by keeping people away from harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays.

"Assuming there are no safety concerns, it is clearly a better option than UV exposure," says Jerod Stapleton, a behavioral scientist at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick who studies indoor tanning and was not involved in the work. "We are talking about millions of young people potentially not using tanning beds each year. ... It could be a game-changer for skin cancer prevention."

The advance has its origins in a strain of "redhead" mice with rust-colored fur. The rodents harbor a variant of a gene called MC1R that gives rise to red hair and fair skin in humans. A properly functioning MC1R gene encodes a receptor that sits on the surface of skin cells called melanocytes, which transmit a signal to crank out dark melanin pigments; these pigments help protect skin cells from UV radiation. The redhead version of the receptor doesn't respond to the make-more-melanin signal, which explains why redheaded humans tend to burn, not tan.

David Fisher, a dermatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, reasoned that he could help people tan by finding a way to stimulate this melaninmaking pathway. He and chemist Nathanael Gray of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston targeted a protein called salt-inducible kinase (SIK), which works like a master off switch in the melanin factory. They bought a molecule known to inhibit SIK from a chemical supplier, and applied the compound as a liquid to the shaven backs of the redhead mice. After 7 days of daily treatment, the mouse skin turned "almost jet black," Fishers says. The tan was reversible though, and the rodents' skin tone returned mostly back to normal in about 2 weeks. Fisher notes that were no apparent safety concerns, but this would need to be tested more rigorously before human application.

A UV-Independent Topical Small-Molecule Approach for Melanin Production in Human Skin (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.05.042) (DX)


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Monday June 19 2017, @04:32AM (8 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Monday June 19 2017, @04:32AM (#527729) Journal

    The redhead version of the receptor doesn't respond to the make-more-melanin signal, which explains why redheaded humans tend to burn, not tan.

    In other words it won't pay for redheads to try sun exposure to get a tan?

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by RedBear on Monday June 19 2017, @07:24AM (7 children)

    by RedBear (1734) on Monday June 19 2017, @07:24AM (#527793)

    In other words it won't pay for redheads to try sun exposure to get a tan?

    No. Exactly as the article says, redheads tend to simply burn and peel when exposed to UV or sunlight, with little to show for it afterward. Even with a slice of Native American genes and a father who tanned quite easily, it takes days of moderate exposure for me to even have a visible tan line around arms or neck. The fairer the skin, the worse the problem. True redheads tend to just develop more and darker freckling over time with sun exposure. There's a reason you typically see freckles on the ears, cheeks, top of the arms and the exposed chest, and very little anywhere that's always covered.

    The tanning industry is huge, and if this chemical has even manageable side effects it will be a game changer. Huge numbers of people do not like being pale enough that you can see their veins and arteries. If it's also true that it can be safely used to turn yourself not just slightly tanned but almost "jet black" in a believable and totally reversible way, it could be used to eventually bring about a sea change in the way our society deals with race. A lot of people would stop saying racism is "over" after spending a year as a very dark-skinned person.

    --
    ¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
    ... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
    • (Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Monday June 19 2017, @12:44PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 19 2017, @12:44PM (#527872)

      after spending a year as a very dark-skinned person

      I suspect for virtue signalling reasons this experience will be mandatory for college application, if not attendance, soon after approval.

      Racial differences extend beyond skin color which pretty much invalidates the whole thought experiment.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 19 2017, @01:36PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 19 2017, @01:36PM (#527892)

      A lot of people would stop saying racism is "over" after spending a year as a very dark-skinned person.

      It’s been done. [wikipedia.org]

    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 19 2017, @05:22PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 19 2017, @05:22PM (#528033)

      A lot of people would stop saying racism is "over" after spending a year as a very dark-skinned person.

      The problem is that many black people are violent and don't appreciate novelty. This would stay even if they become white. So the thing about skin color is plainly a correlated indicator. Not a bad thing in itself, otherwise white people would not appreciate sun tanning. So on a group basis, it pays to avoid black people. If you know a individual to be good, then that superficial indicator becomes largely irrelevant.

      MAO-A gene expression and limbic system differences likely play a role as well.

      • (Score: 2) by RedBear on Tuesday June 20 2017, @06:21AM

        by RedBear (1734) on Tuesday June 20 2017, @06:21AM (#528353)

        I could take everything you just said and replace the word "black" with the word "white" and it would be equally true.

        What I'm trying to tell you is that you are a horrible racist. No matter how much you want it to be true to make yourself feel superior, there is no racial or ethnic group, or social or financial class of humans that are subhuman in any scientifically measurable way. Your racist beliefs are based solely on personal opinion and confirmation bias.

        --
        ¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
        ... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday June 19 2017, @09:37PM (1 child)

      by bob_super (1357) on Monday June 19 2017, @09:37PM (#528167)

      > A lot of people would stop saying racism is "over" after spending a year as a very dark-skinned person.

      Since a significant number of them would be either dead or in jail, we wouldn't hear them say it anymore.

      > The tanning industry is huge

      True, and the goal is not to be too dark, so the dosage will have to be scientific, and the two-week expiration is perfect for sustained income.
      Considering how tanning salons exist even in SoCal, I've got a lab I need to break into...

      A cream producing the opposite effect would make someone a billionaire in a few days, starting with just the Indian market.

      • (Score: 2) by RedBear on Tuesday June 20 2017, @06:11AM

        by RedBear (1734) on Tuesday June 20 2017, @06:11AM (#528351)

        A cream producing the opposite effect would make someone a billionaire in a few days, starting with just the Indian market.

        Oh yeah, good point. I always forget how huge skin whitening is all over Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Many of the dodgy skin bleaching products on the market have horrible side effects up to and including cancer and death. This discovery may well lead to finding a safer way to block melanin production for those who think they are too dark. That's actually probably a larger market than the tanning industry.

        --
        ¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
        ... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 19 2017, @10:22PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 19 2017, @10:22PM (#528183)

      You might need to get an IV. This is trivial if your veins show.