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| Newsletter | Dermopharmacy Innovation Prize (DIP) for repair enzyme: Fast regeneration of skin damaged by ultraviolet irradiation |
If human skin is exposed to solar radiation, it will redden as a result of biochemical reactions and a sunburn will occur. Under the influence of UV-B light which is short-waved, the human immune system is disturbed, the DNA are changed and the growth of tumor cells is thus favored.
These biochemical processes have been demonstrated in an animal model. Mice were transplanted foreign tumor cells to which the healthy immune system of the mice reacted by defending them. When mice were, on the other hand, exposed to UV-B-light, they could not fight the transplanted tumor cells any more. As a consequence, the tumor was able to grow.
Human DNA, however, only regenerates slowly in a natural way, because the damaged pieces have to be cut out, must be newly synthesized and then are put back into the DNA again.
A certain type of algae, Anacystis nidulans, produces a so-called photolyase. This is a repair enzyme which protects the algae from the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Under the influence of long-wave UV-light, the enzyme splits the network of DNA filaments into individual filaments which may then be read again.
The repair effect of this enzyme may also be used for the human skin by sun protection and after-sun-preparations containing photolyase. Jean Krutmann, M.D., Professor of Environmental Health Research and Dermatology, at the Institut für umweltmedizinische Forschung* at Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany, has observed that human cells which have been damaged by UV light regenerate in a short time by means of photolyase. After a 30-minute exposure time, approximately 45 percent of the damage is reversed. Furthermore, the skin's immune system is almost completely restored.
Jean Krutmann was awarded the Dermopharmacy Innovation Prize (DIP) for his extensive research work into the area of photobiology of the skin.
On April 1, 2003, the DIP was awarded for outstanding innovations in the field of dermopharmacy at the occasion of the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Society of Dermopharmacy (GD) in Bonn, Germany for the first time.
(* Environmental Health Research Institute)
Source: www.gd-online.de, Pressetexte: Dermopharmazie-Innovations-Preis erstmalig verliehen. Medieninfos: 7. GD Jahrestagung, 1.-2. April 2003, Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medienprodukte (BfArM) Bonn.
Jean Krutmann is awarded the Dermopharmacy Innovation Prize (DIP) for his research on human skin cells:
The Dermopharmacy Innovation Prize is represented by cross-section through the skin in a piece of art made of glass:
| Photolyase
is an enzyme which occurs in all living beings and is dependent on light. Photolyase catalyzes the repair of of UV damage to DNA. It splits thymine dimers, the major UV photoproduct, in desoxyribonucleic acids (DNA). DNA may be inactivated by ultraviolet irradiation. The functionability of DNA may be restored by splitting bound dimers in the presence of photolyase by means of the energy of visible light. Source: Römpp Lexikon Chemie - Version 2.0, Stuttgart/New York, Georg Thieme Verlag 1999 |
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