Skin whitening agents: medicinal chemistry perspective of tyrosinase inhibitors

Melanogenesis is a process to synthesize melanin, which is a primary responsible for the pigmentation of human skin, eye and hair. Although numerous enzymatic catalyzed and chemical reactions are involved in melanogenesis process, the enzymes such as tyrosinase and tyrosinase-related protein-1 (TRP-1) and TRP-2 played a major role in melanin synthesis. Specifically, tyrosinase is a key enzyme, which catalyzes a rate-limiting step of the melanin synthesis, and the downregulation of tyrosinase is the most prominent approach for the development of melanogenesis inhibitors. Therefore, numerous inhibitors that target tyrosinase have been developed in recent years. The review focuses on the recent discovery of…