Researchers hope, that with the findings regarding the ‘sunscreen gene, ‘ they will be able in the future, to fix the effects of exposure to UV rays.
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The UV-resistant gene matters though.
The study comes from Chengyu Liang and other researchers at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Plus, 10,000 patients from the US die every year because of this disease. This means that when they out in the sun, people with the UV-resistant gene could likely fix most of their skin cell DNA damage quickly, while those with the defective copy or less of the UV-resistant gene would likely have more damage remaining the next day.
The Skin Cancer Foundation state that ultraviolet (UV) radiation is considered the primary cause of basal and squamous cell skin cancers, while Liang and colleagues note that UV exposure is the cause of more than 90 percent of melanoma skin cancers. In the USA, skin cancer is the most widely seen cancer while melanoma is deadliest in all the skin cancers.
She adds that if you have the mutated UV-resistant gene or low levels of the gene you might be at a higher risk of melanoma or other skin cancers.
The greatest, and most preventable, cause of skin cancer is unprotected exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light – a known human carcinogen – either from the sun or from artificial sources such as tanning beds. And, as it turned out, Lutzky’s recently FDA-approved technique had worked, as Schwartz is now free of his skin cancer.
They also included two experimental groups with either reduced levels of the UV-resistant gene or a mutant copy of that gene in melanoma cells and 50 fly eyes.
The investigators will conduct research with mice to learn more about how the UV-resistant gene functions.
It was found that when the people with UV-resistant genes go sunbathing or undergo the tanning process, their skin repairs itself easily in an automatic manner.
“After daily accumulation, if they sunbathe or go tanning often, these people will have increased risk for developing skin cancers such as melanoma”, she said.
Furthermore, on analyzing genetic data of individuals with melanoma, the team found that those with lower levels of UVRAG had more advanced forms of the disease and a lower survival rate.
“When the UV-resistant gene is lost, the cell can not efficiently fix UV- and chemical-induced damage”. When it identifies these lesions, the protein “tags” the UVRAG gene, encouraging it to initiate the DNA fix process. It turned out that the cells with the normal UV-resistant gene had already repaired more than half of the damage the UV radiation had caused.
Overall, the researchers say their findings indicate that UVRAG may be a promising target for skin cancer prevention.
Researchers have now identified what the UV-resistant gene does and how it operates in a general population, said Yongfei Yang from USC.
The researchers have warned that further studies should be done prior to medical scientists could introduce a drug that could probably trigger fix function of UV-resistant gene for quick healing of UV damaged cells.
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“First, experts advise people to spot the signs by performing a monthly self-check to detect moles and other growths on your skin and look for any changes that could indicate skin cancer”.
