Design and Synthesis of Peptides-Based Broad-Spectrum Sunscreen
Disciplines
Environmental Chemistry
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Sun emits harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays which can damage our skins. There are three types of UV rays such as UV-C (200-280 nm), UV-B (280-320 nm) and UV-A (320-400 nm). The ozone layer and oxygen filter out the UV-C and act as the earth’s sun's cream. However, UV-B and UV-A cannot be filtered out by Ozone layer, that's why we need sunscreen. There are two types of sunscreens: One is organic compound based which absorb the UV-A and UV-B light and another one is nanoparticle based which reflect or scatter the UV lights. However, organic, and nanoparticle-based sunscreens are generally toxic and not environmentally friendly. Our lab recently designed and developed peptide-based sunscreen. Peptides made of amino acids are non-toxic and environmentally friendly. However, there is no peptide-based sunscreen developed yet. This study aims to create a peptide-based sunscreen that is non-toxic, biodegradable, and protects against the UVA (320-400 nm) and UVB (280-320 nm) spectrum. Previously non-aromatic amino acids were prioritized because of their lack of steric hindrance. This allowed UV rays to be blocked from 190-320 nm. To cover the remaining UV-A (320-400 nm) different dimer peptides were created, D-1, D-2, and D-3. D-1 was synthesized using the previous Sunscreen E sequence using Glycine as the base of the dimer. D-2 was synthesized using different non-bulky amino acids. D-3 was synthesized focusing on creating a fluorescence peptide base. Previous research has shown a fluorescence peptide can cover UV rays to 450 nm. Future research will result in testing the UV coverage capacity of these combinations from 190-400 nm, and how to produce them on a large scale.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
CSM - Chemistry and Biochemistry
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Mohammad A Halim
Design and Synthesis of Peptides-Based Broad-Spectrum Sunscreen
Sun emits harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays which can damage our skins. There are three types of UV rays such as UV-C (200-280 nm), UV-B (280-320 nm) and UV-A (320-400 nm). The ozone layer and oxygen filter out the UV-C and act as the earth’s sun's cream. However, UV-B and UV-A cannot be filtered out by Ozone layer, that's why we need sunscreen. There are two types of sunscreens: One is organic compound based which absorb the UV-A and UV-B light and another one is nanoparticle based which reflect or scatter the UV lights. However, organic, and nanoparticle-based sunscreens are generally toxic and not environmentally friendly. Our lab recently designed and developed peptide-based sunscreen. Peptides made of amino acids are non-toxic and environmentally friendly. However, there is no peptide-based sunscreen developed yet. This study aims to create a peptide-based sunscreen that is non-toxic, biodegradable, and protects against the UVA (320-400 nm) and UVB (280-320 nm) spectrum. Previously non-aromatic amino acids were prioritized because of their lack of steric hindrance. This allowed UV rays to be blocked from 190-320 nm. To cover the remaining UV-A (320-400 nm) different dimer peptides were created, D-1, D-2, and D-3. D-1 was synthesized using the previous Sunscreen E sequence using Glycine as the base of the dimer. D-2 was synthesized using different non-bulky amino acids. D-3 was synthesized focusing on creating a fluorescence peptide base. Previous research has shown a fluorescence peptide can cover UV rays to 450 nm. Future research will result in testing the UV coverage capacity of these combinations from 190-400 nm, and how to produce them on a large scale.