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 Scientists have developed a drug that mimics sunlight to make the skin tan, with no damaging UV radiation involved. 
 
 The drug tricks the skin into producing the brown form of the pigment melanin in tests on skin samples and mice. 
 
 Evidence suggests it will work even on redheads, who normally just burn in the sun. 
 
 The team at Massachusetts General Hospital hope their discovery could prevent skin cancer and even slow the appearance of ageing. 
 
 Potent tan 
 
 UV light makes the skin tan by causing damage. 
 
 This kicks off a chain of chemical reactions in the skin that ultimately leads to dark melanin - the body's natural sunblock - being made. 
 
 The drug is rubbed into the skin to skip the damage and kick-start the process of making melanin. 
 
 Dr David Fisher, one of the researchers, told the BBC News website: "It has a potent darkening effect. 
 
 "Under the microscope it's the real melanin, it really is activating the production of pigment in a UV-independent fashion." 
 
 Image copyright Nisma Mujahid and David Fisher Image caption The drug was tested on the skin sample on the right. 
 
 It is a markedly different approach to fake tan, which "paints" the skin without the protection from melanin, sun beds, which expose the skin to UV light or pills that claim to boost melanin production but still need UV light. 
 
 But the team is not motivated by making a new cosmetic. 
 
 Dr Fisher said the lack of progress in skin cancer - the most common type of cancer - was a "very significant frustration". 
 
 He added: "Our real goal is a novel strategy for protecting skin from UV radiation and cancer. 
 
 "Dark pigment is associated with a lower risk of all forms of skin cancer - that would be really huge." 
 
 Tests, detailed in the journal Cell Reports, have shown the melanin produced by the drug was able to block harmful UV rays. 
 
 Eventually the scientists want to combine their drug with sun-cream to give maximum protection from solar radiation. 
 
 Dr Fisher said everyone should "absolutely" use sun-cream but its weakness was it "keeps you pale". 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 The way the drug works could also allow a ginger tan, as the genetic mutation that causes red hair and fair skin disrupts the normal process where UV light leads to dark melanin. 
 
 It is not yet clear if the drug might have the unintended consequence of affecting the glorious hair colour, but it is thought the hair follicle is too deep in the skin for the drug to reach. 
 
 But whether you are ginger, blonde or brunette, the drug is not yet ready for commercial use. 
 
 The researchers want to do more safety testing, although so far there has been "no hint of problems". 
 
 They will probably want to give it a better name than an SIK-inhibitor too. 
 
 Matthew Gass, from the British Association of Dermatologists, said the study was a "novel approach" to preventing skin cancer. 
 
 He added: "A lot more research has to be done before we see this sort of technology being used on humans, however, it's certainly an interesting proposition. 
 
 "Skin cancer rates in the UK are going through the roof... any research into ways that we can prevent people from developing skin cancer in the first place is to be welcomed." 
 
 Stopping UV damage could have an extra boon beyond cancer - slowing the appearance of ageing. 
 
 Dr Fisher's final piece of promise for the research is: "Many people would say the obvious and most dramatic sign of ageing is what skin looks like and even casual UV damage over the years causes damage. 
 
 "Medically it is very difficult to focus on, but if it is tremendously safe then it could keep skin healthier for longer." 
 
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 cientists hoping to harness melanin’s protective power against skin cancer have created a class of small molecules that could help the skin produce more UV-absorbing pigments. They tested those treatments on human skin samples in the lab, and found they were able to seep in and boost pigment production. 
 
 STAT chatted with study author and cancer researcher Dr. David Fisher about the work, published in Cell Reports. 
 
 What did you set out to study? 
 
 We know a lot about how pigmentation is made, so we looked for a way to find a small molecule chemical to stimulate pigmentation. We wanted to know whether it would be possible to activate real skin pigmentation without using radiation or the sun’s rays, which are damaging and dangerous. We discovered a class of compounds that have the ability to penetrate into the skin and trigger pigmentation. 
 
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 What do you see as the potential applications for those compounds? 
 
 We think it could offer protection. Having dark skin is associated with a really dramatically lower risk of developing skin cancer. Even individuals with just modestly darker skin have a significantly lower skin cancer risk than fair-skinned people who don’t tan, but burn. We don’t anticipate that a huge degree of darkening would be required for the protection. I’m seeing this from a cancer prevention perspective as something that would be used together with sunscreen. I would not see it as a replacement for sunscreen, because sunscreens really do prevent skin cancer. 
 
 A photograph of skin treated with a topical drug that induces pigmentation. Nisma Mujahid and David E. Fisher 
 
 What’s the next step in the research? 
 
 The safety would need to be established and tested. I think probably where it would be tested first would be in individuals who are at the highest risk for developing skin cancer. ||||| Image copyright Thinkstock 
 
 Spending time basking in the sun's warming rays may have addictive properties, claim researchers in the US. 
 
 Their study, published in the journal Cell, showed that sunlight led to the production of endorphins in the skin. 
 
 The Harvard Medical School team said their experiments on mice showed repeated UV exposure led to addiction in the animals. 
 
 Other scientists said describing it as "addiction" was a step too far. 
 
 There have been previous suggestions that people can get addicted to the sun. 
 
 A study of university students using tanning salons suggested around one in three met the definition for addiction. 
 
 Other trials showed withdrawal symptoms could appear, including nausea, jitteriness and shaking, when enthusiastic tanners were given a drug used to treat addiction. 
 
 Happy chemical 
 
 Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School were exploring how such addiction might occur. 
 
 Image copyright Thinkstock 
 
 Mice with a shaved back were exposed to the equivalent of half an hour of midday Florida sun every day for six weeks. 
 
 They showed UV radiation led to the production of a protein in the skin called proopiomelanocortin. This is broken down into the pigment melanin, which gives you a tan, but the team showed pleasure chemicals, or endorphins, were also produced. 
 
 The chemicals act on the same systems in the body as other opioids such as heroin and morphine. 
 
 Giving the mice drugs to block opioids, which are used in rehab clinics, led to withdrawal symptoms including shaking and tremors. 
 
 The mice then started to avoid the place where the drugs were being administered, which the researchers said was a hallmark of addictive behaviour. 
 
 But their experiments do not show the mice actively seeking out the UV light in the same manner as a drug addict. 
 
 Image copyright SPL 
 
 Dr David Fisher, one of the researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, told the BBC: "I would say at this stage, with reasonable confidence, that this pathway really does exist and is probably present in everybody. 
 
 "People who may have no intention of using any drugs may just think they're going out to enjoy a great day outdoors and may be becoming addicted and exposing themselves and their children to UV in a fashion which could elevate their risk of developing skin cancer. 
 
 "It sounds like a cruel joke to be addicted the most ubiquitous carcinogen in the world, it is plausible that there is an evolutionary advantage and we suspect that may relate to vitamin D." 
 
 However, other scientists are not convinced. 
 
 'Not supported' 
 
 Dr David Belin, who researches addiction at the University of Cambridge, said: "I'm not disregarding the interest of looking into addiction to UV light, I think this is a very interesting field and their study is going to be seminal even though their conclusions are not supported by their results." 
 
 He said UV-addicted mice would show a preference for spending time under a UV lamp to the expense of everything else, even eating - something the researchers do not report. 
 
 If people were sun-addicted then: "You would have people giving up their family lives to get access to sunshine, you would have people who lose their jobs because they spend their day on the beach, people would maintain UV-seeking behaviour to the detriment of their everyday life. 
 
 "British people would go on holiday to the south of France and would never come back." 
 
 He added that other tan-is-beautiful social pressures may be behind addict-like behaviour in some people using sun beds. 
 
 However, he said the study itself was "outstanding" and showed that "lying on the beach recruits your opioid system and on its own it might be something you really like." 
 
 Dr Clare Stanford, a reading in experimental psychopharmacology at University College London, said: "This study does not provide the sort of evidence needed to show addiction to UV light in mice and it is even less certain that the work predicts addiction in humans. 
 
 "This would require testing whether the mice preferred UV light or non-UV light, which was not done in this paper." 
 
 Ouch 
 
 Image copyright SPL 
 
 Dr Fisher said he was motivated by the "remarkable embarrassment" of rising rates of skin cancer in the US despite widespread knowledge of the dangers of UV radiation. 
 
 He said using a suncream which blocked both UVA and UVB would probably prevent addiction. 
 
 However, he did say there should be more thought about tanning salons. 
 
 His report concluded: "It may be necessary to more proactively protect individuals, including teens, from the risks of an avoidable, potentially life-threatening exposure and to view recreational tanning and opioid drug abuse as engaging in the same biological pathway." 
 
 'Fake it' 
 
 Sarah Williams, a senior health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "With most cases of skin cancer linked to too much exposure to UV from the sun and sun beds, it's important that people know the dangers and how to protect themselves. 
 
 "While we all need some sun for strong and healthy bones, when the sun is strong it's important to spend time in the shade and cover up with clothing. 
 
 "Sunscreen with at least SPF15 and a high star rating can help protect the parts you can't cover and avoid using sun beds. 
 
 "We'd like to see more people celebrating their natural skin tone, but if you really want a tanned look, it's safer to fake it."
– Good news for the fair-skinned among us: Scientists in Massachusetts have developed a drug that darkens and protects human skin without the damaging effects of ultraviolet (UV) light. Dr. David Fisher, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, tells the BBC the drug initiates a series of chemical reactions that enables skin to produce sun-blocking dark melanin without exposure to dangerous UV light—which initiates the same chemical reactions, but only after damaging the skin. "Under the microscope it's the real melanin,” Fisher says. “It really is activating the production of pigment in a UV-independent fashion." The drug could be a good thing even for people who don't crave a tan: Dark pigment provides a protective barrier against UV radiation, reducing the risk of skin cancer. In an interview with STAT, Fisher says the next step will be to test the drug’s safety, with the first test subjects most likely being "individuals who are at the highest risk for developing skin cancer.” If further tests prove successful the new drug could prove to be a substitute for other self-tanning activities, like lotions, which essentially paint the skin but provide no melanin protection, and tanning beds, which expose the skin to harmful UV rays and can thus be risky. Still, according to Science News, the drug would not, on its own, be considered a substitute for sunscreen, which blocks UV rays but has the counteractive effect of leaving skin pale and vulnerable. Ideally, Dr. Fisher says, the drug would be combined with sunscreen in a single product.