DNA will become future sunscreen

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 08 Mar 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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US researchers say that a short strand of DNA might become the sunscreen of the future.

There is a DNA fragment, called pTT which can help repair and prevent skin damage caused by UV radiation, say researchers at Boston University Medical School.

A protein called p53 suppresses the growth of tumours (tumors), it also helps repair damaged DNA. PPT triggers p53.

You can read about this in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers used sunlamps to expose hairless mice to UV radiation.

They found that the mice which had pTT rubbed into their skin were six times less likely to develop a tumour.

The DNA fragment penetrates the skin, it then imitates a response normally caused by DNA damaged. This then triggers DNA repair enzymes.

When skin is exposed to UC, the enzymes are already in the cells and help prevent damage.

The enzymes are 'telling the cells to cope better with UV'.

Dr David Goukassian said, team leader said this would be great for anyone who is at high risk from UV related skin damage.

'I wouldn't be wrong if I said that most British people and Celts (in general, people of Northern ancestry) are at high risk,' he told the BBC. "We hope that this could lead to new treatments being developed and we are working on it as fast as we can.'

We could soon see trials on humans.

Incidences of skin cancer are growing around the world as more and more people expose their skin to sunlight.