Could a “sun tan drug” cure Vitiligo?

Last Updated on 25th January 2019 by Caroline Haye

Creating Real Pigment without the Sun

Summer is now in full swing, a fact that may or may not be cause for celebration if you have #vitiligo. Whether this season fills you with joy or with frustration, I hope that you will feel encouraged by some news I shall be referring to later in this post on the subject of #tanning.

But first, is it me, or are the months going by faster and faster? (OK– I know it’s an age thing.) Another World Vitiligo Day has come and gone and here we are already a week into July. Our summer so far in the north of England has been a mixed bag of changeable weather, which has developed into a strange pattern over the past week or so. Each day starts out wet, windy and cold (and I mean winter-cold) and then, bizarrely, at around 3pm, it blossoms into a bright, sunny afternoon, becoming progressively hotter as the evening approaches. A classic case of all four seasons in one day! This calls for several different outfits to suit the evolving conditions. Swathed in layers of winter woollies until mid-afternoon, I gradually peel these off one at a time, eventually changing into shorts, a vest top and flip-flops.

At last I am loving summer

These changes in the weather are unusual and extreme for the time of year but they are not nearly as dramatic as the change in my attitude to them. Until a few years ago I would have welcomed cold summer weather because it allowed me to cover up my white patches and feel “normal”. It meant I didn’t have to be reminded constantly of my two-tone skin because I could hide it under layers of clothing and pretend it didn’t exist. It’s not that I didn’t love to see blue skies. I longed to be able to enjoy carefree, sunny summer days, like all my friends and family did, but my heart used to sink at the prospect of warm weather because I was deeply unhappy in my own skin. But now, having regained most of the pigment that I had lost over my 50 years of vitiligo, I am the first to moan about the unseasonably chilly rain and (who would have thought?) the first to stretch out on a lounger at the merest glimpse of the sun’s rays breaking through the clouds. At last, I am loving summer, beach holidays and being outdoors at every opportunity as much as when I was a little girl – more so, even, because now I profoundly appreciate those things I missed out on for so many years.

Vitiligo can cause you to feel all sorts of emotions but despair does not have to be one of them.

The reason I am sharing this shift in my perception of summer is in the hope of spreading a little sunshine of my own and dispelling some of the clouds of doom that may be hanging over you if your vitiligo is getting you down. I remember very well how frustrating and downright depressing this time of year can be if you are trying to cope with relentless pigment loss. It is a time that can evoke feelings of dread and even despair, feelings that are easier to bury during the winter, but that surface every time swimming and barbecue season comes round again.

The message I am keen to spread, through all my blog posts, is that although vitiligo is bound to cause you to feel all sorts of emotions, #despair does not have to be one of them. When doctors tell you there is nothing that can be done about vitiligo and when the years pass with no breakthrough in the search for a cure, it is natural to feel yourself losing hope. But I believe there is every reason for vitiligo sufferers to feel hopeful.

Years ago most patients had no choice but to take the doctor’s word as gospel and the most we could do to verify the information we were given was to ask for a second opinion. Today the internet gives us access to countless stories of people who have improved their vitiligo in a variety of ways and countless more scholarly articles and scientific papers that document the advances being made in medical research. This means that not only can everyone with vitiligo try known treatments until they find the one that works best for them, but we can also educate ourselves on the causes of the condition and progress towards a permanent cure – something that I now believe is a certainty.  
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What form such a cure will take is still up for debate. But, given the relatively small amount of funding that goes directly to vitiligo research, the breakthrough may well come as a spin-off from other medical advances, possibly in the field of cancer research and genetics. Last year’s strides forward with T-cell therapy  are just one example of this.  ​​

SIK inhibitor could lead to a cure for vitiligo and other autoimmune conditions

Another milestone, reported in the media just last month,  was brought to my attention by a vitiligo friend (thanks for flagging this story up, David :)). Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital have come up with a novel approach to preventing sun-induced skin cancer by developing an experimental topical, small-molecule drug called a SIK inhibitor that produces a genuine “suntan” but without the need for UV exposure. If the drug is developed successfully and becomes commercially available, it could have exciting implications for vitiligo sufferers, as well as drastically reducing the number of skin cancer cases by providing effective sun protection to all skin types. Whilst the research paper  makes no mention of vitiligo, it does indicate that the drug is even capable of developing a dark tan in skin types with red hair, despite the fact that redheads carry a genetic mutation that inhibits tanning. Extending this discovery to the treatment of vitiligo seems, at least to me, to be a logical spin-off. And this patent (bearing two of the names from the Massachusetts Hospital Team) on SIK inhibitors for use in treating inflammatory and/or immune disorders, including vitiligo, would suggest that moves are already being made in this direction.

It is too soon to say whether or not this particular approach will be the one that provides the long-awaited #cure-for-vitiligo. But early indications look hopeful and, if not this, then some other line of research will inevitably bear fruit.  So, my recommendation in the meantime is to enjoy the sunshine the best way you are able, be optimistic about whatever vitiligo treatments or strategies you may be using and, above all, remind yourself that a vitiligo cure has never been as close as it is right now!