Bioactive oligopeptides in dermatology: Part II

Advances in Transdermal Delivery of Antimicrobial Peptides for Wound Management: Biomaterial-Based Approaches and Future Perspectives

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), distinguished by their cationic and amphiphilic nature, represent a critical frontier in the battle against antimicrobial resistance due to their potent antimicrobial activity and a broad spectrum of action. However, the clinical translation of AMPs faces hurdles, including their susceptibility to degradation, limited bioavailability, and the need for targeted delivery. Transdermal delivery has immense potential for optimizing AMP administration for wound management. Leveraging the skin's accessibility and barrier properties, transdermal delivery offers a noninvasive approach that can circumvent systemic side effects and ensure sustained release. Biomaterial-based delivery systems, encompassing nanofibers, hydrogels, nanoparticles, and liposomes, have emerged as key players in enhancing the efficacy of transdermal AMP delivery. These biomaterial carriers not only shield AMPs from enzymatic degradation but also provide controlled release mechanisms, thereby elevating stability and bioavailability. The synergistic interaction between the transdermal approach and biomaterial-facilitated formulations presents a promising strategy to overcome the multifaceted challenges associated with AMP delivery. Integrating advanced technologies and personalized medicine, this convergence allows the reimagining of wound care. This review amalgamates insights to propose a pathway where AMPs, transdermal delivery, and biomaterial innovation harmonize for effective wound management.

Whitening effect of novel peptide mixture by regulating melanosome biogenesis, transfer and degradation

Peptides are short chain of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. They are widely used as effective and biocompatible active ingredients in cosmetic industry. In this study, we developed novel peptide mixture and identified its anti-pigmentation effect on melanocytes and keratinocytes. Our results revealed that peptide mixture inhibited melanosome biogenesis through the regulation of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor, a key factor of melanogenesis in melanocytes. And we observed that peptide mixture inhibited melanosome uptake through the reduction of protease-activated receptor 2, a phagocytosis-related receptor in keratinocytes. Furthermore, peptide mixture activated autophagy system resulting in degradation of transferred melanosomes in keratinocytes. The anti-pigmentation effect of multi-targeting peptide mixture was assessed in a human skin equivalent model (MelanoDerm). Melanin contents in epidermal layer were significantly decreased by topical treatment of peptide mixture, suggesting that it can be applied as a novel cosmetics material having a whitening function.

Cosmeceutical Peptides in the Framework of Sustainable Wellness Economy

Among the many aspects that contribute to the wellness of each individual, healthy and younger-looking skin play a relevant role, as clearly shown by the important growth of the skin-care products market observed in recent years. In this scenario, the field of cosmeceuticals appears particularly promising, being based on cosmetic products containing active ingredients. Among these, several peptides were proposed for cosmeceutical applications, thanks to their specific interaction with biological targets. In this mini-review, we report some of the most investigated and used peptides for cosmetic formulations, taking into account that cosmeceutical peptides are basically divided into three main categories (i.e., neurotransmitter inhibitors, carriers, and signal peptides). Special attention was payed to the scientific studies supporting the claimed biological activity of these peptides, as a fundamental aspect that should underpin the growth of this field in the framework of a sustainable wellness economy.

Topical Over-the-Counter Antiaging Agents: An Update and Systematic Review

Over-the-counter antiaging formulations aim to prevent or minimize the signs of aging skin, and to maintain the benefits obtained from different cosmetic procedures. Even though a huge selection of such products is available on the market, evidence and good clinical practice of the data supporting their use are oftentimes lacking. In this systematic review, the authors reviewed scientific data available in the published literature on the most common ingredients used in antiaging cosmetics, with a particular focus on in vivo studies.

The Effects of a Novel Series of KTTKS Analogues on Cytotoxicity and Proteolytic Activity

KTTKS is a matrikine that originates from the proteolytic hydrolysis of collagen. This peptide stimulates ECM production and types I and III collagen expression in vitro. A more stable form of KTTKS is pal-KTTKS, known as Matrixyl^® or palmitoyl pentapeptide-3. A series of novel pentapeptides, analogues of KTTKS with the general formula X-KTTKS-OH(NH₂), where X = acetyl, lipoyl, palmitoyl residues, was designed and synthesized. Their effect on amidolytic activity of urokinase, thrombin, trypsin, plasmin, t-PA, and kallikrein were tested. Cytotoxic tests on fibroblasts, as well as collagen and DNA biosynthesis tests for selected peptides, were also carried out. The test results showed that the most active plasmin inhibitors were palmitoyl peptides, whether in acid or amide form. No biological effects of lysine modification to arginine in the synthesized peptides were found. None of the synthesized peptides was not cytotoxic on fibroblasts, and three of them showed cell growth. These three compounds showed no concentration-activity relationship in the collagen and DNA biosynthesis assays.

Digging into the low molecular weight peptidome with the OligoNet web server

Bioactive peptides play critical roles in regulating many biological processes. Recently, natural short peptides biomarkers are drawing significant attention and are considered as “hidden treasure” of drug candidates. High resolution and high mass accuracy provided by mass spectrometry (MS)-based untargeted metabolomics would enable the rapid detection and wide coverage of the low-molecular-weight peptidome. However, translating unknown masses (<1 500 Da) into putative peptides is often limited due to the lack of automatic data processing tools and to the limit of peptide databases. The web server OligoNet responds to this challenge by attempting to decompose each individual mass into a combination of amino acids out of metabolomics datasets. It provides an additional network-based data interpretation named “Peptide degradation network” (PDN), which unravels interesting relations between annotated peptides and generates potential functional patterns. The ab initio PDN built from yeast metabolic profiling data shows a great similarity with well-known metabolic networks, and could aid biological interpretation. OligoNet allows also an easy evaluation and interpretation of annotated peptides in systems biology, and is freely accessible at https://daniellyz200608105.shinyapps.io/OligoNet/.

Enzyme-Assisted Discovery of Antioxidant Peptides from Edible Marine Invertebrates: A Review

Marine invertebrates, such as oysters, mussels, clams, scallop, jellyfishes, squids, prawns, sea cucumbers and sea squirts, are consumed as foods. These edible marine invertebrates are sources of potent bioactive peptides. The last two decades have seen a surge of interest in the discovery of antioxidant peptides from edible marine invertebrates. Enzymatic hydrolysis is an efficient strategy commonly used for releasing antioxidant peptides from food proteins. A growing number of antioxidant peptide sequences have been identified from the enzymatic hydrolysates of edible marine invertebrates. Antioxidant peptides have potential applications in food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. In this review, we first give a brief overview of the current state of progress of antioxidant peptide research, with special attention to marine antioxidant peptides. We then focus on 22 investigations which identified 32 antioxidant peptides from enzymatic hydrolysates of edible marine invertebrates. Strategies adopted by various research groups in the purification and identification of the antioxidant peptides will be summarized. Structural characteristic of the peptide sequences in relation to their antioxidant activities will be reviewed. Potential applications of the peptide sequences and future research prospects will also be discussed.

Novel inhibitory effect of the antidiabetic drug voglibose on melanogenesis

Overproduction of melanin can lead to medical disorders such as postinflammatory melanoderma and melasma. Therefore, developing antimelanogenic agents is important for both medical and cosmetic purposes. In this report, we demonstrated for the first time that the antidiabetic drug voglibose is a potent antimelanogenic agent. Voglibose is a representative antidiabetic drug possessing inhibitory activity towards human α-glucosidase; it blocked the proper N-glycan modification of tyrosinase, resulting in a dramatic reduction of the tyrosinase protein level by altering its stability and subsequently decreasing melanin production. Acarbose, another antihyperglycaemic drug that has a lower inhibitory effect on human intracellular α-glucosidase compared with voglibose, did not cause any changes in either the N-glycan modification of tyrosinase or the tyrosinase protein level, indicating that voglibose was the most efficient antimelanogenic agent among the widely used antihyperglycaemic agents. Considering that voglibose was originally selected from the valiolamine derivatives in a screen for an oral antidiabetic drug with a strong inhibitory activity towards intestinal α-glucosidase and low cell permeability, we propose an alternative strategy for screening compounds from valiolamine derivatives that show high inhibitory activity towards human intracellular α-glucosidases and high cell permeability, with the goal of obtaining antimelanogenic agents that are effective inside the cells.