People invest a lot of time and effort in keeping their skin looking young using masks, creams and serums. Researchers have now identified naturally produced molecules with anti-aging potential that originate in the body itself. These three compounds are derived from bacteria that live in the blood and have been shown to reduce both cellular damage and inflammation in lab-grown human skin cells. The results, published in the Journal of Natural Products by the American Chemical Society and the American Society for Pharmacognosy, suggest a promising direction for future skin aging treatments.
Scientists still have a limited understanding of how bacterial byproducts (called metabolites) circulating in the bloodstream affect human health. One group of metabolites, known as indole compounds, has attracted particular interest for their anti-aging, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects. In 2015, researchers discovered a blood bacterium capable of producing these compounds and named it Paracoccal blood. Chung Sub Kim, Sullim Lee and their team wanted to know more about it blood pressure and focused their study on its indole-functionalized metabolites.
“We got interested blood pressure because blood-derived microbes are a relatively unexplored area of research,” says Kim. “Given the unique environment of the bloodstream, we believed that studying individual species as blood pressure could reveal a previously unknown metabolic function relevant to health and disease.”
Identifying new compounds
To investigate this idea, the team grew a large amount blood pressure three days and then extracted the full mixture of metabolites produced by the microbe. They used several analytical tools, including spectrometry, isotopic labeling and computational approaches, to determine the chemical structures of 12 different indole metabolites within the mixture. Six of them have never been documented before.
Kim, Lee and their colleagues then examined whether indole compounds could limit the processes associated with skin aging. They added liquid solutions containing each metabolite to cultured human skin cells. Before treatment, the cells were exposed to conditions that increased reactive oxygen species, which are molecules known to cause inflammation and damage collagen.
Among the 12 indoles tested, three of them, including two newly identified ones, reduced reactive oxygen species levels in these stressed skin cells compared to untreated samples. These same metabolites also reduced the amounts of two inflammatory proteins and a protein involved in collagen breakdown.
A potential avenue for new skin treatments
Based on these early results, the researchers note that the newly characterized indole metabolites may one day form the basis of therapies that help counteract the effects of aging on the skin.
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Research Foundation of Korea, the BK21 FOUR Project, and the National Supercomputing Center.
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