Melanin, the pigment responsible for skin color, may influence the effectiveness of drugs, according to researchers, who are calling for more inclusive clinical trials.
- A recent study shows that melanin, the pigment responsible for skin color, can influence the effectiveness of medications by binding to them, delaying their absorption.
- This phenomenon raises questions about the relevance of standard dosages, which do not take into account different skin tones.
- Researchers are calling for a more inclusive approach in clinical trials, including testing drugs on more diverse 3D human skin models.
Skin color appears to have an influence on the effectiveness of treatments. According to a study recently published in the journal Human Genomicsmelanin pigments in the skin could act as a “sponge” for certain medications, affecting the speed at which active ingredients reach their target.
The interaction between melanin and certain drug compounds
Researchers at the University of California at Riverside (United States) explain in a press release : “Our research shows that melanin, the pigment responsible for skin color, has a surprising affinity with certain drug compounds. This interaction could challenge standard dosages, since skin tones vary greatly from person to person. ‘other.”
Certain medications can thus bind to pigments in the skin, which could delay their absorption or modify their effectiveness. A telling example is that of nicotine, whose affinity with melanin has been widely observed by scientists. This particularly raises questions about the effectiveness of anti-smoking patches in people with darker skin: “Do smokers with more pigmented skin benefit as much from these nicotine patches to quit smoking as others?”
More clinical trials including human diversity
But according to researchers, skin pigmentation is just one example. Genetic variations among different ethnic groups can indeed lead to very different responses to treatments, affecting up to 20% of medications. “Yet our molecular understanding of these differences remains very limited.” So many issues that should encourage pharmaceutical companies to carry out “more inclusive clinical trials”, with more “patients from diversity”in order to rethink drug development processes.
“Today, drugs are most often tested on one or a few human cell models originating mainly from donors of Northern European origin, explain the researchers. The drugs are then tested in rodents, and then, if the tests are conclusive, they move on to clinical trials. But are the drugs ready to be administered to a diverse group of patients when they have not been tested first, for example, in human cell models of different origins? Would you bungee jump off a bridge if you knew the bungee wasn’t tested for your weight class? Unlikely. So why is this currently possible with medications?”
As an immediate solution, the team of scientists proposes testing the drugs on 3D human skin models with varying levels of pigmentation. These models would allow pharmaceutical companies to evaluate the interaction of drugs with different skin tones before conducting clinical trials. “Skin pigmentation needs to be more of a factor in safety and dosage estimates”insist the researchers.
