IMFELD DOMINIK*, JACKSON EILEEN, HEIDL MARC, CAMPICHE REMO, WANDELER ELIANE, ZIEGLER HUGO
*Corresponding author
DSM Nutritional Products, R&D Personal Care, Wurmisweg 576, CH-4303 Kaiseraugst, Switzerland

Abstract

After briefly reviewing the history of small peptides as cosmetic actives, the basic principles behind peptides as active ingredients and why they have become so successful over the past decade, we report a case study investigating TGF-β activation by a small tripeptide and show how the larger protein thrombospondin, as a natural template, inspired us to design the peptide, resulting in very interesting biological in-vitro data and significant anti-wrinkle efficacy in human skin.

 INTRODUCTION

In recent years bioactive peptides have established themselves as cornerstone ingredients in skin care, mainly for anti-aging formulas. Their success is founded on the fact that peptides are designed to be highly active, with a scientific rationale often based on key functional bio-molecules inspired by nature. In addition, synthetic cosmetic peptides show an excellent safety track record. Peptides and proteins are both made up of amino acid building blocks which are linked via the so-called amide bond. The peptides are generally small with chain lengths of two to twenty amino acid resid ... ...