N-Nicotinoyl dopamine inhibits skin pigmentation by suppressing of melanosome transfer

We investigated the inhibitory effects of a niacinamide derivative, N-Nicotinoyl dopamine (NND) on melanogenesis. NND inhibits melanosome transfer in a normal human melanocyte-keratinocyte co-culture system and through phagocytic ability without affecting viability of cells while it did not show inhibitory effects of tyrosinase and melanin synthesis in B16F10 mouse melanoma cells. In addition, safety of NND was verified through performing neural stem cell morphology assay. Our findings indicate that NND may potentially be used for cosmetic industry for improvement of skin whitening and therapies related with several skin disorders, and the effect of NND may be acquired via reduction of melanosome transfer.