Significance of the melanocortin 1 receptor in the DNA damage response of human

[RIURAO]

Quoted from:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24730569

Significance of the melanocortin 1 receptor in the DNA damage response of human melanocytes to ultraviolet radiation.
Swope V1, Alexander C, Starner R, Schwemberger S, Babcock G, Abdel-Malek ZA.
Author information
Abstract
Activation of the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) by ?-melanocortin (?-MSH) stimulates eumelanin synthesis and enhances repair of ultraviolet radiation (UV)-induced DNA damage. We report on the DNA damage response (DDR) of human melanocytes to UV and its enhancement by ?-MSH. ?-MSH up-regulated the levels of XPC, the enzyme that recognizes DNA damage sites, enhanced the UV-induced phosphorylation of the DNA damage sensors ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related (ATR) and ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and their respect-ive substrates checkpoint kinases 1 and 2, and increased phosphorylated H2AX (?H2AX) formation. These effects required functional MC1R and were absent in melanocytes expressing loss of function (LOF) MC1R. The levels of wild-type p53-induced phosphatase 1 (Wip1), which dephosphorylates ?H2AX, correlated inversely with ?H2AX. We propose that ?-MSH increases UV-induced ?H2AX to facilitate formation of DNA repair complexes and repair of DNA photoproducts, and LOF of MC1R compromises the DDR and genomic stability of melanocytes.
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

What does this mean? As you know, or should know, Melanotan-1 Acts by activating MC1R receptor. a LOF* MC1R receptor is a problem in people with genetic prediposition, but this genetic predisposition doent mean that all MC1R receptors has lost its function, what Melanotan does is activate those that are still working.* ;D ;D ;D

[briannagodess]

It's good to know that Melanotan has a role in people with damaged MC1R receptors. Response to damage such as UV radiation is an important indication of how a person's repair system works. If a person simply has a genetic problem with their response to damage or their MC1R receptor, there is still Melanotan that can help them repair the damage. This is important to such events like extreme UV exposure or other similar scenarios.