Joel Carillet / Getty ImagesTo protect your skin, use sunscreenJoel Carillet / Getty Images
After a day of sunbathing on the beach without sunscreen, a person’s skin is likely to become red and inflamed, often painful, as the surface cells die and fall off in response to damage traditionally associated with DNA. Late last year, it was discovered that this may not be the whole truth, although ultraviolet radiation from the Sun does indeed damage DNA. It is actually the RNA molecule, not DNA, that triggers a reaction to excessive exposure to ultraviolet B radiation. Scientists from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark found that damage to a type of RNA known as messenger RNA (mRNA) triggers a response orchestrated by a protein called ZAK-alpha, which alerts the immune system, leading to inflammation and pain. “In mice exposed to ultraviolet [UV] radiation, we found responses such as inflammation and cell death, but when we removed the ZAK gene, these responses disappeared, which means that ZAK plays a key role in the skin’s response to UV-induced damage,” said Simon Bekker-Jensen, one of the study’s authors, in a university statement. What remains unchanged is that sunscreen is essential (Molecular Cell, December 19; ScienceAlert, January 23).
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