BNPs remain on skin for a full day but are gone due to normal exfoliation in 5 days.

BNPs remain on skin for a full day but are gone due to normal exfoliation in 5 days.

A new nanotechnology-based sunscreen may provide excellent protection from ultraviolet (UV) damage while eliminating a number of harmful effects that occur when currently used sunscreens penetrate beyond the skin’s surface.

Researchers encapsulated the UV-blocking compounds in bio-adhesive nanoparticles, which adhere to the skin well, but do not penetrate beyond the skin’s surface. These properties resulted in highly effective UV protection in a mouse model, without the adverse effects observed with commercial sunscreens, including penetration into the bloodstream and generation of reactive oxygen species, which can damage DNA and lead to cancer.

Commercial sunscreens use compounds that effectively filter out damaging UV light. However, there is concern that these agents have a variety of harmful effects due to penetration past the surface skin. For example, these products have been found in human breast tissue and urine, and are known to disrupt the normal function of some hormones. Also, the exposure of the UV filters to light can produce toxic reactive oxygen species that are destructive to cells and tissues and can cause tumors through DNA damage.

“This work applies a novel bioengineering idea to a little-known but significant health problem,” says Jessica Tucker, PhD, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering’s Program in Delivery Systems and Devices for Drugs and Biologics in Bethesda, MD. “While we are all familiar with the benefits of sunscreen, the potential toxicities from sunscreen due to penetration into the body and creation of DNA-damaging agents are not well-known. Bioengineering sunscreen to inhibit penetration and keep any DNA-damaging compounds isolated in the nanoparticle and away from the skin is a great example of how a sophisticated technology can be used to solve a problem affecting the health of millions of people.”

The new findings appear in Nature Materials.

The group encapsulated a commonly used sunscreen, padimate O (PO), inside a nanoparticle (a very small molecule often used to transport drugs and other agents into the body). PO is related to the better-known sunscreen PABA.

The bioadhesive nanoparticle containing the sunscreen PO was tested on pigs for penetration into the skin. A control group of pigs received the PO alone, not encapsulated in a nanoparticle. The PO penetrated beyond the surface layers of skin where it could potentially enter the bloodstream through blood vessels that are in the deeper skin layers. However, the PO inside the nanoparticle remained on the surface of the skin and did not penetrate into deeper layers.

Because the bioadhesive nanoparticles (BNPs) are larger than skin pores, it was somewhat expected that they could not enter the body by that route. However, skin is full of hair follicles that are larger than BNPs and so could be a way for migration into the body. Surprisingly, BNPs did not pass through the hair follicle openings, either. Tests indicated that the adhesive properties of the BNPs caused them to stick to the skin surface, unable to move through the hair follicles.

Further testing showed that the BNPs were water-resistant and remained on the skin for a day or more, yet were easily removed by towel wiping. They also disappeared in several days through natural exfoliation of the surface skin.

BNPs Enhance the Effect of Sunscreen

An important test was whether the BNP-encapsulated sunscreen retained its UV-filtering properties. The researchers used a mouse model to test whether PO blocked sunburn when encapsulated in the BNPs. The BNP formulation successfully provided the same amount of UV protection as the commercial products applied directly to the skin of the hairless mouse model. Surprisingly, this was achieved even though the BNPs carried only a fraction (5%) of the amount of commercial sunblock applied to the mice.

Finally, the encapsulated sunscreen was tested for the formation of damaging oxygen-carrying molecules known as reactive oxygen species (ROS) when exposed to UV light. The researchers hypothesized that any ROS created by the sunscreen’s interaction with UV would stay contained inside the BNP, unable to damage surrounding tissue. Following exposure to UV light, no damaging ROS were detected outside of the nanoparticle, indicating that any harmful agents that were formed remained inside of the nanoparticle, unable to make contact with the skin.

“The sunscreen-loaded BNPs combine the best properties of an effective sunscreen with a safety profile that alleviates the potential toxicities of the actual sunscreen product because it is encapsulated and literally never touches the skin,” says senior author Mark Saltzman, PhD, of the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science in New Haven, Conn.