Département de chimie moléculaire

Among the human copper-contg. monooxygenases, Tyrosinase (Ty) is an important enzyme involved in the determinant step of the biosynthetic pathway of melanin pigment. In this pathway, Ty catalyzes the tyrosine monooxygenation into L-DOPA-quinone, which is the precursor of the skin pigment melanin. Ty inhibitors/activators are a well-established approach for controlling in vivo melanin prodn., so their development has a huge economical and industrial impact. Moreover, recent publications highlight that targeting tyrosinase with inhibitors/activators to treat melanogenesis disorders is one of many possible approaches, due to the complex biochem. reaction involved in the melanin synthesis. [on SciFinder(R)]