Melanin: insights into structure, analysis, and biological activities for future development Original paper
Researched by:
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Dr. Umar
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Dr. Umar
Read MoreClinical Pharmacist and Clinical Pharmacy Master’s candidate focused on antibiotic stewardship, AI-driven pharmacy practice, and research that strengthens safe and effective medication use. Experience spans digital health research with Bloomsbury Health (London), pharmacovigilance in patient support programs, and behavioral approaches to mental health care. Published work includes studies on antibiotic use and awareness, AI applications in medicine, postpartum depression management, and patient safety reporting. Developer of an AI-based clinical decision support system designed to enhance antimicrobial stewardship and optimize therapeutic outcomes.
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Dr. Umar
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Researched by:
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Dr. Umar
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Dr. Umar
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Microbiome Signatures identifies and validates condition-specific microbiome shifts and interventions to accelerate clinical translation. Our multidisciplinary team supports clinicians, researchers, and innovators in turning microbiome science into actionable medicine.
Dr. Umar
What was reviewed?
This paper reviews microbial melanin and the microbiome through the lens of melanin biology, chemistry, extraction, and analytical characterization, with a strong emphasis on how melanin’s structure determines function. The authors summarize the major melanin classes (eumelanin, pheomelanin, allomelanin, neuromelanin, and pyomelanin) and explain how these pigments arise across animals, plants, and microorganisms, including fungi and bacteria. A major focus is placed on practical identification and quality assessment approaches—particularly spectroscopic and thermal methods—because melanin is chemically heterogeneous, highly cross-linked, and difficult to define with a single “gold-standard” assay. The review then connects melanin composition and morphology to biological activities (notably antimicrobial, antioxidant, radiation-protective, and photothermal effects) and highlights translational opportunities in biomaterials, drug delivery, and infection-related applications.
Who was reviewed?
Rather than reviewing human participants, the paper synthesizes evidence spanning melanin-producing organisms, including mammals, plants, and—most relevant for clinicians working with microbiome science—microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria that generate melanin-like pigments (e.g., pyomelanin). The microbial component is important clinically because pigment production can be a trait linked to environmental resilience and virulence-related phenotypes in certain pathogens, and it may influence how microbes persist in host-associated niches. The review also draws from laboratory studies using extracted or engineered melanins (natural and biomimetic) to test biological activity and biomedical performance.
Most important findings
A key takeaway is that melanin is not one molecule but a family of heterogeneous polymers whose properties depend on monomer composition, oxidation state, metal binding, and supramolecular assembly—features that directly affect optical absorption, radical scavenging, and antimicrobial activity. The review emphasizes that analytical rigor matters: combining techniques (e.g., FTIR, ESR, TGA and complementary microscopy/chemical methods) is often necessary to distinguish melanin types and to avoid misclassification, which is highly relevant for any microbiome signatures database that wants to encode “melanin production” as a microbial trait. Functionally, microbial melanins (including pyomelanin) are framed as protective biomaterials that can enhance survival under stress (UV, oxidative stress, radiation), which may help explain persistence patterns of certain melanized microbes in inflammatory or treatment-exposed environments. Clinically adjacent applications discussed include antimicrobial surfaces, photothermal/anti-radiation biomaterials, and drug delivery concepts leveraging melanin’s binding capacity and biocompatibility.
| Microbiome-signature element | Clinically relevant interpretation |
|---|---|
| Melanin/pyomelanin production trait | Potential marker of microbial stress tolerance and persistence under oxidative/UV/radiation exposure |
| Enrichment of melanized fungi/bacteria | Suggests a community shift toward resilient, often inflammation-tolerant phenotypes |
| Melanin-associated antioxidant capacity | May modulate local redox balance and host–microbe interactions in mucosal niches |
| Melanin-linked antimicrobial/photothermal potential | Supports biomaterial and anti-infective strategies that exploit pigment-mediated functions |
Key implications
For clinicians and translational microbiome teams, this review supports treating microbial melanin and the microbiome as a functional signature rather than a taxonomic label: pigment production can be encoded as a microbial capability that correlates with resilience, persistence, and potentially treatment tolerance in certain contexts. For microbiome databases, the practical implication is the need to standardize how melanin is detected and annotated (method, melanin subtype, and confidence), because “melanin-positive” can represent chemically distinct polymers with different biological effects. Finally, the paper provides a helpful bridge from pigment chemistry to biomedical design, suggesting concrete routes for infection-related biomaterials and targeted delivery concepts that may eventually intersect with microbiome-informed care pathways.
Citation
Song W, Yang H, Liu S, Yu H, Li D, Li P, Xing R. Melanin: insights into structure, analysis, and biological activities for future development.Journal of Materials Chemistry B. 2023;11(32):7528-7543. doi:10.1039/D3TB01132A
Melanin
Melanin is a family of biologic pigments with strong UV-absorbing and antioxidant properties. Humans use melanin for photoprotection, while many microbes use melanin to resist stress and enhance survival. In microbiome medicine, melanin can influence microbial resilience and host–microbe interactions.