New drug offers rapid tan

It may not be instant but it is pretty damn quick. Scientists have developed a drug that boosts tanning by speeding up the rate at which skin darkens when exposed to sunlight.

In tests, people who tanned in the ordinary way required 50 per cent more time in the sun than those who took the drug before stripping off. The tans of those who received the treatment - given by injection - lasted at least three weeks longer.

The research is at an early stage, but the drug could potentially hit sales of sun cream yet at the same time cut rates of skin cancer. It could put tanning salons out of business. It might boost the annual rush for the sun, if people felt better protected, or undermine it if they felt no need to "head for the Med" for a tan.

The drug, called Melanotan-1 (MT-1), is a synthetic version of the hormone that stimulates the release of melanin in the cells, the pigment that produces a tan. MT-1 is described by the researchers at the University of Arizona, Tucson, who developed it, as a "super-potent" version of its natural counterpart, alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone.

In three small trials to test the safety of the drug, volunteers were exposed to varying amounts of natural sunlight or light from a sunlamp. There were 28 people involved in the trials and in all cases bar one those given the drug tanned quicker than those who were not.

In the first study, tanning was tested with a sunlamp on the neck, in the second light was applied to one buttock - because it is an area not ordinarily exposed - and in the third, half of the back was exposed. The longest period of exposure was to natural sunlight over five days a week for four weeks.

Writing in Archives of Dermatology, the authors say that the drug is safe when combined with brief exposure to sunlight or sunlamps and that longer treatment over four weeks "does not produce more intense or new adverse effects".

Although the principal aim was to test the safety of the drug, they add: "Perhaps the most important observation is of marked tanning synergy with the combination of UV-B light [from a sun lamp] or sunlight. The degree of skin darkening was significantly greater than that achieved with UV [ultraviolet] light, sunlight or drug alone."

British skin specialists were cautious about the implications. Jane Sterling, consultant dermatologist at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, and a spokeswoman for the British Skin Foundation, said that if a pill could be developed that safely speeded tanning its effect would be unpredictable.

"You could argue that if you went out in the sun for 20 minutes and got what you regarded as a cosmetically satisfactory tan you might regard that as sufficient. But would you go in again? I wouldn't come back from the beach after 20 minutes - and I look after my skin."

Users of sunbeds would be more likely to reduce their sessions if they tanned more quickly, Dr Sterling said. "But some might decide they would just get a deeper tan by going for the same number of sessions."

The biggest potential benefit of the drug could be in preventing skin cancer. Melanin, the pigment that darkens the skin on exposure to sunlight, protects against the damage caused by ultraviolet light to the skin DNA which is a trigger of skin cancer.

The first of the three trials, in which a sunlamp was applied to the neck of four subjects, showed that three of them developed tans but they also had 47 per cent fewer sunburned cells.

Dr Sterling said that would be "helpful evidence" that short bursts of sun exposure were not producing the sort of damage that leads to skin cancer in people who took the drug. But the long-term effects would still have to be tested.

How MT-1 works

* The drug stimulates cells to produce melanin, the pigment that produces a tan.

* Volunteers who took the drug tanned in two-thirds of the time and found their tans lasted at least three weeks longer.

* They also had fewer sunburned cells, which suggests the drug may protect against skin cancer.

- INDEPENDENT