Development of a Natural Cyanobacterial Sunscreen

合成防晒霜占加拿大和其他地方市售防晒霜的绝大多数。初步研究表明，基于蓝藻产生的天然化合物的防晒霜由于没有毒副反应，有可能比合成防晒霜更有效。Verdant Applications Inc.将开发一种天然有效的防晒霜，以取代目前市场上的化学产品。 该公司已经确定了一种由蓝细菌产生的天然防晒化合物（粘叶黄素、scytonemin、菌孢菌素氨基酸）的混合物，这些化合物结合在一起，对UVA/B暴露表现出有效的保护作用。此外，已经建立了一种可重复的方法来诱导蓝细菌在实验室规模上产生这些防晒化合物。因此，Verdant正在寻求与西方大学合作，开发一种具有成本效益的规模化工艺，用于全天然蓝藻防晒霜的商业生产。使用这种防晒霜将减少UVA/B依赖性损害的可能性，这是由于目前市场上大多数合成防晒霜的毒副反应。此外，这种全天然防晒霜将使用户接触到更少的人造化学物质，这些化学物质存在于目前市场上的合成防晒霜中。

Synthetic sunscreens constitute the vast majority of sunscreens that are commercially available in Canada and elsewhere. Preliminary work has shown that sunscreens that are based on natural compounds produced by cyanobacteria have the potential to be much more effective than synthetic sunscreens due to the absence of toxic side reactions. Verdant Applications Inc. will develop a natural and efficacious sunscreen to replace the chemically-based products currently on the market. The company has identified a mixture of natural sunscreen compounds (myxoxanthophyll, scytonemin, mycosporine amino acids) produced by cyanobacteria which, in combination, exhibit effective protection against UVA/B exposure. Furthermore, a reproducible process has been established to induce the cyanobacteria to produce these sunscreen compounds on a laboratory scale. As a result, Verdant is looking to partner with Western University to develop a cost-effective scale-up process for commercial manufacture of an all-natural, cyanobacterial-based sunscreen. Use of this sunscreen would reduce the potential for UVA/B-dependent damage due to toxic side reactions of most synthetic sunscreens on the market today. Furthermore, this all-natural sunscreen would expose users to fewer man-made chemicals that are present in the synthetic sunscreens that are currently on the market.