An Omaha physician-scientist recently reported research on a unique sunscreen built into and bound to the skin that could hold the key to protecting people from the hazardous effects of sunlight exposure.
Ramon M. Fusaro, M.D., Ph.D., a faculty member at UNMC and Creighton University Medical Center, presented the results at the Eighth International Symposium on the Maillard Reaction in Charleston, S.C. He conducted his research with colleague Edwin Rice, M.D., of the Park Nicollet Clinic in Minneapolis.
The scientists report that the formation in the skin of melanoidins, a keratin-bound sunscreen, protected 30 white Caucasians patients from developing a sun rash from their allergy to sunlight without any therapeutic failures over a seven-month period of spring, summer, and fall. The keratin-bound sunscreen was chemically formed in the top layer of the skin by the overnight sequential bedtime applications of two chemically pure medications, first dihydroxyacetone (sunless tanning lotions) followed 15 minutes later by lawsone (active dye in henna). However, the public is cautioned not to use over-the-counter versions of these products as they are not pure and may degenerate and have serious side effects.
“The use of this ultraviolet protection in white Caucasians, who have the highest rates of skin cancer and malignant melanoma in the world, will significantly reduce the skin cancer rates in these individuals as they will always have their total broad spectrum ultraviolet protection always with them under any casual or deliberate sunlight exposure,” Dr. Fusaro said.
Dr. Fusaro said that the experimental records of the studied patients revealed that they also never experienced sunburns during the seven months of the study even though 60 percent of them were in sunlight for six to eight hours daily. This is a new interpretation of a previous study conducted by Dr. Rice at the Park Nicollet Clinic.
“The topical applications were safe to use and gave a cosmetic tan coloring of the skin but more importantly gave a sunlight protective effect across the total ultraviolet spectrum with a sunburn protection equivalent of SPF 18 or more,” Dr. Fusaro said. “The agents were applied at bedtime and needed six to eight hours of contact with the skin to form the ultraviolet protection.”
Dr. Fusaro said the sunlight protection resisted removal by swimming or contact with clothes, and was not washed off with soap and water. It also allowed normal sweating for heat regulation without loss of sunlight protection. The protection lasts for two weeks and is slowly removed from the skin by normal loss of the top layer of the skin.
“Thus, it does need periodic nightly renewal but not every day. It is an excellent sunscreen for children as it is applied before bedtime under parental supervision,” Dr. Fusaro said. “It is an ideal sunscreen for combat for military personnel as it is applied only at bedtime, can’t be removed by contact with any environment, allows heat regulation with normal sweating, does not contaminate or compromise the usefulness of military equipment including gas masks and doesn’t need renewal every night at bedtime.”
The only disadvantage of this keratin-bound sunscreen method is that it can’t be used in individuals who have a rare disease known as glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. Dr. Fusaro noted, however, that the presence of this genetic mutation can be established by a blood test.
The keratin-bound sunscreen will most likely be a prescription medication and the user will have to take vitamin D supplements because of the sunscreen’s efficiency of blocking the sun rays entering the skin.