Possible Cure for Sunburn Pain
- 11 years ago
Scientists from Duke University and the University of California in San Francisco have discovered a substance that they think can eliminate the pain caused by sunburns.
Scientists from Duke University and the University of California in San Francisco have discovered a substance that they think can eliminate the pain caused by sunburns.
They started by identifying the TRVP4 molecule as the activating protein that causes skin irritation, pain, and itching.
To see if the molecule was also activated during sunburns, they genetically engineered mice without the protein and exposed them to controlled amounts of ultraviolet light.
The genetically engineered mice had the painful effects of their sunburn decreased or completely eliminated after being exposed to UVB light rays in a controlled experiment.
Study author Doctor Wolfgang Liedtke, an associate professor of neurology and neurobiology at Duke University School of Medicine said: “We should be cautious because we want to see what inhibition of TRPV4 will do to other processes going on in the skin. We will need to adapt TRPV4 blockers to make them more suitable for topical application.”
Follow up tests included a pharmaceutical compound that inhibits TRVP4 being applied to the skin of regular non-engineered mice.
Those mice also showed decreased signs of a burn after UVB light ray exposure.
Scientists from Duke University and the University of California in San Francisco have discovered a substance that they think can eliminate the pain caused by sunburns.
They started by identifying the TRVP4 molecule as the activating protein that causes skin irritation, pain, and itching.
To see if the molecule was also activated during sunburns, they genetically engineered mice without the protein and exposed them to controlled amounts of ultraviolet light.
The genetically engineered mice had the painful effects of their sunburn decreased or completely eliminated after being exposed to UVB light rays in a controlled experiment.
Study author Doctor Wolfgang Liedtke, an associate professor of neurology and neurobiology at Duke University School of Medicine said: “We should be cautious because we want to see what inhibition of TRPV4 will do to other processes going on in the skin. We will need to adapt TRPV4 blockers to make them more suitable for topical application.”
Follow up tests included a pharmaceutical compound that inhibits TRVP4 being applied to the skin of regular non-engineered mice.
Those mice also showed decreased signs of a burn after UVB light ray exposure.