Descripción del proyecto
Un análisis más profundo de la estructura de la melanina
La melanina determina el color del pelo, la piel y los ojos, pues aporta la pigmentación de las células. Esta sustancia heterogénea, de color intenso e insoluble protege la piel de la luz solar. La ciencia de los materiales ha mostrado gran interés en su análogo sintético, la polidopamina. No obstante, su estructura polimérica heterogénea dificulta el estudio exhaustivo de sus funciones. Ante esta situación, el equipo del proyecto financiado con fondos europeos Mel.Photo.Protect subsanará varias brechas del conocimiento y explicará la estructura de la melanina y su función general fotoprotectora mediante química informática. Los resultados también servirán para desentrañar posibles enfermedades provocadas por la excitación química de la melanina y servirán como guía para el diseño de materiales funcionales basados en la polidopamina.
Objetivo
Melanin is the deeply coloured, insoluble and heterogenous biopolymer of animal skin, hair and eyes responsible for protection against harmful light action. It also has a pathogenic role as a generator of reactive oxygen species and possibly through chemiexcitation, and its polydopamine synthetic analogue has raised great interest in the materials community. In spite of these multiple points of interest, the details of melanin structure and its main photoprotecting function are still largely unknown, mostly due to the heterogeneous polymer structure. Closing this gap is an urgent challenge, and our proposal aims at doing that with the methods of computational chemistry. Based on the widely accepted hierarchical structure model for melanin, in WP1 we will generate a library of aggregates made of 5,6-dihydroxyindole (DHI) and 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid (DHICA) oligomers with different connectivity and redox state (diol, semiquinone and quinone forms). In WP2 we will simulate the absorption spectra of the aggregates and compare them with the experimental melanin spectrum, which starts at the near IR and increases monotonically into the UV. In WP3 we will simulate the excited-state decay mechanisms for the different aggregates in order to explain melanin's lack of fluorescence, which is indicative of fast decay responsible for its photoprotecting function. The results of our project will provide a new view on the photoprotecting function of melanin based on a systematic consideration of its heterogeneous structure, and they will allow us to assess what specific aggregates are responsible for the different functional characteristics. They will help us to assess the possible pathogenic role of melanin chemiexcitation, and provide new principles for design of PDA-based functional materials.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinador
17004 Girona
España