Melanins are enigmatic pigments produced by a wide variety of microorganisms including bacteria and fungi. Here, we have isolated and characterized extracellular melanin from mushroom fungus, Schizophyllum commune. The extracellular dark pigment produced by the broth culture of S. commune, after 21 days of incubation was recovered by hot acid-alkali treatment. The melanin nature of the pigment ...

Melanin is capable of transforming 99.9% of the absorbed sunlight energy into heat, reducing the risk of skin cancer. We here develop a melanin-mediated cancer immunotherapy strategy through a transdermal microneedle patch. B16F10 whole tumor lysate containing melanin is loaded into polymeric microneedles that allow sustained release of the lysate upon insertion into the skin. In combination wi...

The relationship between cell pigmentation and radiosensitivity was investigated in two selected human melanoma cell lines with different melanin content (mixed type: eumelanin and pheomelanin, and pheomelanotic phenotypes). The same study was also done after stimulation of melanogenesis (1) by addition of the melanin precursor l-tyrosine to each of the cell lines separately and (2) by irradiat...

The control mechanisms and information content of melanin-based color signals in birds have generated much recent interest and controversy among evolutionary biologists. Initial experimental studies on this topic manipulated coarse metrics of an individual's condition (i.e. food intake, disease state) and failed to detect significant condition-dependence of melanin ornament expression. However,...

the present study was designed to investigate the anti-melanogenic and cytotoxic activities of methanol extract of phlomis kurdica. the antioxidant and anti-tyrosinase activity of meoh extract from p. kurdica (mpk) were examined by dpph radical scavenging and mushroom tyrosinase activity assays (in vitro), respectively. furthermore, the effect of mpk on the melanin content, cellular tyrosinase ...

OBJECTIVES There have been developed to use targeting ability for antimicrobial, anticancerous, gene therapy and cosmetics through analysis of various membrane proteins isolated from cell organelles. METHODS It was examined about the lysosomal membrane protein extracted from lysosome isolated from HeLa cell treated by 100 ppm melanin for 24 hours in order to find associated with targeting abi...

From submerged cultures of Scytalidium sp. 36-93, ten metabolites were isolated due to their effects on dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) or DOPA melanin biosynthesis. Four of the compounds, scytalols A (1a), B (1b), C (2) and D (3), are new secondary metabolites, the structures of which were determined by spectroscopy, while the other compounds are known. Scytalols A (1a) and D (3) are selective inhi...

Thirty different isolates of actinomycetes collected from different localities in Gharbia Governorate, Egypt were tested for melanin pigment production. Only one isolate produced melanin and identified as Streptomyces torulosus. The selected actinomycete isolate was grown under different cultural conditions and it was found that starch-nitrate medium was the optimum for the growth of selected i...