We all know that if we spend a lot of time in the sun without protection, we will get sunburned. The skin becomes red, hot and inflamed, and hurts when simply touched. Then it peels off, and for several days we can barely touch each other. This is clear, we don’t need science to explain it because almost all of us have experienced it at some point. However, we were wrong about the origin of these sunburn. We always thought it was due to DNA damage. That’s what they say in the textbooks. However, now an international team of scientists has shown that they are, in fact, RNA damage those that cause this unpleasant effect.
These researchers, who come from University of Copenhagen and Nanyang Technological Universityin Singapore conducted their experiments both in mice as in human skin cell cultures. This is important because not everything studied in mice can be extrapolated to humans, but cell cultures can help understand the impact on our species.
In both types of experiments, they noticed that the RNA damage response was much faster. At the very least, it seems to be closely related to sunburn. This may not seem to give us any interesting information. What difference does it make whether it is DNA or RNA? Sunburns hurt just as much! And yes, this is true, but this seemingly trivial fact This can help us a lot in the future.
DNA or RNA?
DNA is instructions body. It contains all the information about who we are and what we need to stay alive. Our DNA contains instructions for making insulin when glucose builds up in the blood, or for helping melatonin help us sleep at night. They also include data about the color of our eyes or how our hair grows. Everything we are is in our DNA.
All our cells have the same DNA, but not all DNA is used in all cells. For example, the gene responsible for the synthesis of insulin is present in the cells of the eye, but it is not needed there. It will never be used. Yes, it is necessary for the cells of the pancreas, since it is this organ that is responsible for its synthesis. It is used there. This use of a particular gene is known as gene expression. The gene is turned on where and when it is needed. In this case, in the cells of the pancreas (where), with the accumulation of glucose in the blood (when).
We already know what DNA is. Something more or less unchanged. It can undergo mutations, but remains more or less unchanged throughout our lives.
On the other hand we have RNA. This is another one nucleic acid. DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid and RNA is ribonucleic acid. Differs in the presence of different sugars in the molecule: ribose In the case of RNA and deoxyribose in the case of DNA.
There are many types of RNA: transfer RNA, ribosomal RNA, messenger RNA… Each of these has its own function, but in this case we will focus on the messenger, since this is what is mentioned in the study of sunburn.
We have already seen that DNA is used only when and where it is needed. This use involves using the information contained in a gene to create a protein that will perform the desired function. These proteins are synthesized in cellular organelles called ribosomes. But there is a problem. Ribosomes cannot read DNA. said very much roughly speaking, It’s a language they don’t understand. They understand the language of messenger RNA. Therefore, when a gene is to be expressed, its information is transcribed into messenger RNA. For example, when we translated a page from the instructions from English to Spanish so that our grandmother would know how to use the washing machine.
This is the function of messenger RNA. Having understood this well, we can move on to the next one.
What does all this have to do with sunburn?
Sunburn is caused by exposure to solar radiation. ultraviolet raysespecially type B (UVB). This causes DNA damage, that’s absolutely true. In fact, these DNA damages can accumulate and eventually lead to melanoma. None of this has changed. However, we usually think that sunburn is the first warning of DNA damage, but in fact it turns out that this is not the case. This messenger RNA the one who gets upset.

After reading the literature and conducting several experiments, the authors of the just published study suggested that sunburn may be associated with a protein called ZAK-alpha. This is due to a reaction to what is known as ribotoxic stress. That is, when a fault is detected in messenger RNA, this protein triggers immune system attack cells in which this damage is detected, so that the altered messenger RNA not translated on the ribosome. If this happens, you will end up with broken proteins and this can be dangerous. This immune system response also triggers an inflammatory response. The skin turns red, becomes hot, swells… How does this seem to you? A tan indeed!
This entire cascade of reactions to ultraviolet radiation was discovered in human skin cell cultures. But what will happen in a living organism?
Scientists tried to genetically modify a group of mice so that the gene with instructions for the synthesis of the ZAK-alpha protein did not exist. If there were no ZAC alpha when mice were exposed to ultraviolet B radiation They did not receive any burns. On the other hand, they did it with the whole ZAK-alpha.
What’s the point of knowing all this?
The study authors believe that this new discovery could be useful for treating many diseases. inflammatory diseases Skin condition worsens when exposed to the sun. This will also be important information in future studies on the effects of the sun and skin cancer. The most tedious part will be change textbooks. Considering that there are still textbooks that feature a tongue taste map that was scientifically disproven many years ago, we can’t expect this to happen quickly. At least you already know that.
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But be careful. This doesn’t have to mean there’s nothing wrong with a sunburn. Our melanin reacts by absorbing solar radiation as soon as we are exposed to it, which is why we tan. If we burn, it’s a sign that our melanin can’t handle it anymore, and just like the RNA was damaged, the DNA will soon be damaged as well. Always use sun protection.
Source: Hiper Textual
